Colombia’s Prosecutor General’s Office indicted President Gustavo Petro’s former finance minister and former interior minister for allegedly buying congressional support for government proposals.
The prosecutor accused Former Finance Minister Ricardo Bonilla and former Interior Minister Luis Fernando Velasco of “leading, promoting, and directing” a “criminal organization” that allegedly bought the support of members of Congress through the allocation of development projects to their districts.
According to the prosecution, the ministers allegedly ordered disaster management agency UNGRD and road infrastructure agency Invias to award projects with a value of $161 million (COP 612 billion) in exchange for lawmakers’ support of government that were pending in Congress between 2023 and 2024.
The prosecutor failed to specify the eight congressmen who allegedly benefitted from the “pork barrel” deals or provide evidence to suggest irregularities in the negotiations between government and representatives.
Instead, the prosecutor reiterated that the former ministers intended to negotiate “with members of Congress so that, in exchange for the projects, they would vote favorably for the government projects,” which is not necessarily illegal.
Bonilla and Velasco have insisted that they did nothing illegal.
The prosecution asked the indictment judge to put the former ministers under house arrest, but without success.
The judge called a second hearing on December 15.
At this hearing, Velasco and Bonilla will be able to defend themselves against the allegations.
The ongoing court case is part of a major investigation into corruption at the UNGRD, which has cost the agency more than $60 million since 2022, according to the Comptroller General’s Office.
Corruption cost Colombia’s disaster management agency at least $60M: comptroller
Two former UNGRD directors have admitted that they received kickbacks for warding contracts to a befriended government contractor.
These two former directors, Olmedo Lopez and Sneyder Pinilla, vowed to reveal corrupt practices of other government officials in exchange for lower sentencing.
