Bogotá, Jul 17 (EFE).- The Supreme Court of Justice has summoned Colombian President Gustavo Petro, Health Minister Guillermo Jaramillo, and another senior official to testify as witnesses in a corruption case at the National Unit for Disaster Risk Management (UNGRD) involving the heads of the Senate and the House of Representatives.
The high court “determined the declaration of President Gustavo Petro, the Minister of Health Guillermo Alfonso Jaramillo and the Secretary of Transparency of the Presidency of the Republic, Andrés Idárraga Franco,” as part of the investigation once morest the presidents of the Senate, Iván Name (Green Alliance), and the House of Representatives, Andrés Calle (Liberal Party).
“The statement by President Petro and Minister Jaramillo will be made by sworn certification,” the Supreme Court said in a statement.
He also “ordered a judicial inspection of the offices of the President and the Secretary of the Senate and the House of Representatives to obtain information on the process of the health reform and the pension reform,” the first of which sank in its legislative process and the second became law.
The call to the president comes following former UNGRD director Olmedo López assured the Court that the National Liberation Army (ELN) guerrilla received money from the State through contracts with this entity, mired in a corruption scandal.
In a statement he gave last month to Supreme Court investigators, revealed Tuesday by Noticias Caracol, López said: “This is a network that includes ministers and contractors, but in the middle there are other officials (…) and it affects an actor who has a very strong military capacity.”
“The name on that paper that I showed to the Prosecutor’s Office and that appears in the summary of my statement (…) is the ELN and its great influence in the department of Arauca (bordering Venezuela),” added López.
The scandal at UNGRD began when local media revealed the alleged embezzlement of 46.8 billion pesos (regarding 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 presidents of the Senate and the House of Representatives in exchange for support in Congress for President Petro’s social reforms.
In this regard, López implicated the Minister of Finance, Ricardo Bonilla, before the Court, when he spoke of the “delivery of contracts” to get the Congressional commissions to approve projects, such as budgetary additions.
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2024-07-19 14:16:17
