The Attorney General’s Office reported this Wednesday – December 18 – that it opened a formal investigation against officials and former officials of the Programs for Peace Fund, which is part of the Presidency of the Republic, after finding alleged irregularities in the management of public resources.
Specifically, this process goes against Pablo Francisco Pardo Velasco, who will have to account for some anomalies in a contract with the firm ‘Pública’, for holding events, for $10,000 million, and which would have been added by more than 50%, without compliance with the requirements.
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All of this originates from complaints made by the media, about facts related to the legal business signed for “the provision of operational and operating services that guarantee the organization, administration and execution of events and/or activities that guarantee the execution of the requirements aimed at achieving and maintaining peace in the regions.”
“The contract, signed on November 8, 2023, had an execution deadline of December 31, 2023 or until resources were exhausted. That is to say that, according to the complainant, ‘the Fund for Special Programs for Peace of the Presidency of The Republic will spend $10,000 million on events in just 53 days,’ the entity explained.
Attorney General’s Office
In this sense, the Public Ministry seeks to establish whether there were deficiencies in the planning and signing of this agreement and in its addition, given that this would have exceeded 50% of its initial value.
“The Second Delegate for State Contracting required information on the current status of the bilateral, the percentage of physical compliance and the technical, legal and financial justification that would have led to the questioned addition,” they explained.
The control body closed by saying that they hope that the National Government will deliver the information quickly, given that what happened must be clarified as soon as possible and reach those who have committed a crime, if necessary.
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Land purchase alert
The Attorney General’s Office also paid attention to what they have described as poor budget management in the property purchasing processes by the National Land Agency (ANT) and pointed out that it is necessary to pay more attention to this issue.
According to the Attorney General, Margarita Cabello Blanco, of the available resources, which amount to $1.2 trillion, only 33% has been executed, which resulted in the remaining percentage, equivalent to $645,000 million, being transferred to the Colombia in Peace Fund. without being executed.
This was stated by the head of the control body during the technical session evaluation of compliance with the orders given by the Constitutional Court in the ruling on the execution of the land policy (SU – 288 of 2022), carried out this Monday before the magistrates of that high court.
Land purchase
In her intervention, the head of the control body highlighted the entry into operation of the agrarian jurisdiction because it is an advance in the development of comprehensive rural reform, although she noted that it is necessary to assign clear and specific powers to agrarian judges that justify the existence of differential rules and principles specific to a jurisdiction.
In relation to the implementation of the multipurpose cadastre, he indicated that only 12.4% of the prioritized area in the National Development Plan has been updated, which shows that we are very far from the goal of 70% of the entire national territory. Well, of 598 projected municipalities, Only 141 have a cadastre, which for them is insufficient.
