The Attorney General’s Office held this Thursday, July 25, the hearing to bring charges against Olmedo Lopez, Sneyder Pinilla and the contractor Luis Eduardo Lopez Roserothree of those involved in the corruption case of the National Risk Management Unit (UNGDR).
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In the midst of this diligence, which was carried out before the 35th Court of Guarantees of Bogotá, the delegate prosecutor Andrea Muñoz referred to some officials of the Petro government who would be involved in the case and who, allegedly, They would have given the order to give money to congressmen.
In this regard, Muñoz detailed the participation of the current director of the Department of Public Service, César Manrique, the Minister of Finance Ricardo Bonilla, his former advisor María Alejandra Benavides, the current director of the National Intelligence Directorate (DNI), Carlos Ramón González, and Sandra Ortiz, former presidential advisor for the regions.
The prosecutor assured that Minister Bonilla had a decisive role in the UNGRD contract delivery to legislators from the third committees. He also mentioned that the director of the DNI had given instructions for the payment of bribes to the presidents of the Senate and the House, through the mediation of Sandra Ortiz.
“You, Mr. Sneyder, coordinated with Maria Alejandra Benavides, advisor to the Minister of Finance, Ricardo Bonilla, contracts for the municipalities of Cotorra, Saravena and Carmen de Bolivar, in which the senators and representatives Julio Elias Chagui, Wadith Manzur Imbett, Karen Astrid Manrique Olarte, Liliana Esther Bitar Castilla, Julian Peinado, Juan Diego Muñoz Cabrera and Juan Pablo Gallo were unduly interested, according to the instructions given by Minister Ricardo Bonilla.”Muñoz explained in his speech.
Along the same lines, the accusing entity revealed that contracts were signed at UNGRD that were financed with resources from the National Land Agency (ANT), key entity for agrarian reform.
(Read more: Petro apologized to the country for the corruption scandal at UNGRD)
Hearing on the charging of charges
Private file
Corruption case at UNGRD
The scandal at UNGRD began when local media revealed in February the alleged embezzlement of 46.8 billion pesos (about 11.7 million dollars) in the purchase of 40 tanker trucks to bring drinking water to desert areas of the Caribbean department of La Guajira.
Added to this is the revelation that money from that entity was used to pay bribes to the former presidents of the Senate, Iván Name (Green Alliance), and the House of Representatives, Andrés Calle (Liberal Party) and other congressmen in exchange for support in Congress for the social reforms of President Gustavo Petro.
During the hearing on Thursday, prosecutor Muñoz said that Olmedo López, former director of UNGRD, and Sneyder Pinilla, former deputy director of the entity, committed contracts for more than 228,000 million pesos and that they paid bribes at the end of last year, for 5.342 million pesos that came from the tanker truck contract.
It should be noted that the charges against López, Pinilla and López Rosero are conspiracy to commit a crime, embezzlement by misappropriation and undue interest in the execution of contracts.
(Read more: Corruption at UNGRD: Petro’s response to the outflow of resources to the ELN)
BRIEFCASE
*With information from EL TIEMPO
