BOGOTA.- He Supreme Court of Colombia He summoned the country’s president to testify as a witness, Gustavo Petrofor him corruption scandal of the National Unit for Risk Management (UNGRD) after former senior officials of the organization denounced irregular contracts that had gone to congressmen to process government reforms.
The magistrate of the high court’s investigation chamber, Francisco Farfán, also asked to hear the Minister of Health, Guillermo Alfonso Jaramillo. Both statements will be made by sworn certification.
He also ordered a judicial inspection of the offices of the President, the Senate and Parliament to obtain information on the process of health and pension reforms, according to Caracol Radio.
The former president of the Senate, Iván Name, and the president of the House of Representatives, Andrés Calle, would allegedly be involved in the case, who would have received bribes in exchange for approving a series of reforms promoted by the Government in Congress, as denounced by the former director of Ungrd Olmedo López and the former deputy director of disaster management Sneyder Pinilla.
The scandal reveals irregularities in the purchase of 40 tanker trucks, allegedly overpriced, worth nearly 12 million dollars, which were intended to supply the desert department of La Guajira, one of the poorest in the country.
In May, Petro pledged to combat corruption in his government and said that the case of the entity in question is one of “structural and professional corruption,” a fact that he claims dates back to previous governments.
The statement was requested by the Attorney General’s Office and the defense of Congressmen Name and Calle – who served until June as presidents of the Senate and the House of Representatives, respectively – investigated for the case of alleged corruption at Ungrd.
Pinilla, who is being investigated by the Attorney General’s Office, reported in the media that part of the money for the purchase of the tank trucks had gone into the personal coffers of Name and Calle to supposedly support the social reforms promoted by the Petro government. Name and Calle deny this version.
The Supreme Court said it is investigating seven other congressmen for the same alleged corruption case.
Alleged financing of the ELN
The government also gave explanations about a new aspect of the corruption scandal, after Noticias Caracol published the video of a new statement by the former director of Ungrd, Olmedo López, in which he suggested that Members of the high government ordered him to direct some contracts to finance the guerrilla group National Liberation Armywith which the government maintains a dialogue table.
“What a dirty way to use something as sacred as peace to reduce sentences without returning the stolen money,” Petro questioned on social media X, referring to the principle of opportunity that López has invoked and that gives him legal benefits for revealing what he knows about the case.
The president also said that any type of funding for the ELN will occur in a final phase of the peace negotiations that involves the “definitive demobilization of violence and will never be provided through public contracting.”
The government’s peace delegation at the dialogue table with the ELN also noted that all actions in the peace process have “strictly adhered to the principle of legality.”
Source: With information from Europa Press / AP
