The Government of Guatemala will dismiss and take legal action against the attorney of the Attorney General’s Office (PGN) who represented the State in the Chimaltenango Bypass case, because due to a poor procedure, the two builders who confessed to fraud were not able to pay Q21 million in decent reparation, and instead they were sentenced to pay Q350 thousand each.
On July 26, two executives of Constructora Nacional, Sociedad Anónima (Conasa) and Renova Ingenieros, Sociedad Anónima accepted fraud charges in the Chimaltenango Bypass case, a “mega-project” worth Q528.6 million that since its inauguration in 2019 has been affected by landslides and floods; however, Judge Claudette Domínguez, head of the High Risk Court A, sentenced them to pay Q350,000 each for decent reparations to the State of Guatemala, because the PGN did not support the requirements for the builders to pay Q21 million.
Prior to that, Jorge Alfredo Tejada Argueta, vice president of the Administrative Council and legal representative of Conasa, and Carlos Enrique Figueroa Rabanales, sole administrator and legal representative of Renova Ingenieros, Sociedad Anónima, were sentenced to 5 years in prison for fraud, but having undergone the procedure of acceptance of charges, the sentence was reduced to 3 years and 4 months.
Judge Domínguez said that the requests of the PGN regarding adequate reparation in this case could not be addressed because they were not properly accredited, referring to a report that was not attached to the file.
For this reason, on Monday, August 5, President Bernardo Arévalo said that the attorney for the PGN who represented the State in the process of claiming decent reparation will be dismissed and will be subject to criminal charges, due to the fact that he failed to comply with instructions given by the competent authorities.
Without disclosing the name of the lawyer, Arévalo said at a press conference that “the person responsible for not carrying out the actions that had been ordered will be dismissed.”
He added that the Attorney General of the Nation, Julio Roberto Saavedra Pinetta, gave the instruction that the State’s demand be for Q21 million, but this was not complied with by the lawyer who represented the PGN at that time.
“This person will be dismissed and the corresponding charges will be filed for having committed this act,” Arévalo added.
He also noted that they have documentation showing that the instruction was different.
Details
The Chimaltenango Bypass untangles traffic on the Inter-American Highway in Chimaltenango and was inaugurated in 2019 by former President Jimmy Morales (2016-2020) at a cost of US$68.3 million (Q528.6 million), but despite this large investment, the section collapses with the rains and, according to sectors, exemplifies corruption in the country.
But two years later, the road is seriously suffering in winter, and the cost of the investment has grown by a quarter of its budget.
The first rain of the year in which Morales inaugurated the stretch was the prologue to a novel without an end, with continuous flooding and landslides that have stripped a controversial highway of slopes with concrete coverings that crumble in several sectors with each significant accumulation of water.
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