2024-01-12 15:37:59
The controversy continues over Colombia’s loss of hosting the Pan American Games. In the process carried out by the Attorney General’s Office to determine who is responsible for this situation, the Ministries of Sports and Finance threw the ball at each other.
In response to the requirements of the Public Ministry, the Minister of Sports, Astrid Rodríguez, assures that on November 9, 2023, the budget request was made to comply with the agreement with Panam Sports to make a transfer of four million dollars before the December 31, 2023 and another four million dollars more in January 2024.
“This Ministry did request approval from the Treasury for the respective PAC for December 2023 and thus be able to honor the commitments with Panam Sports,” says the Ministry’s letter.
However, as indicated by the minister in her response, on November 22, the Ministry of Finance only approved investment resources for 80 billion for December and the remaining 35 billion were transferred only until January 5, 2024.
Attorney’s Office investigates resources for the Pan American Games | Photo: Colprensa – Barranquilla 2027 Pan American Games Press
In the letter sent to the Attorney General’s Office, Minister Rodríguez transferred responsibility to the Ministry of Finance, headed by Ricardo Bonilla, urging them to explain to the Attorney General’s Office why the funds were not disbursed on time.
For its part, in a first letter, the Ministry of Finance also submitted a response to the Attorney General’s Office and in it it assured that it never received a request from the Ministry of Sports to meet the financial obligations with Panam Sports for the holding of the Pan American Games in Barranquilla. .
“By virtue of the information presented, this Directorate has no registration or specific request in the SIIF by the Ministry of Sports, within which resources are requested to meet obligations related to the Pan American Games,” says the response sent by the Ministry. to the Attorney General’s Office.
In another letter, the Ministry indicated that in the resources that were requested and assigned to the Ministry of Sports and to which Minister Rodríguez refers, a specific requirement was not specified to cover commitments related to the Pan American Games. The Ministry cites the justification recorded by the Ministry of Sports in the Integrated Financial Information System – SIIF Nación, the main source to develop the analysis in the PAC allocation meetings.
“Request for resources to attend: 107,052 mm inter-administrative agreements for the construction and adaptation of municipal sports venues in the country, 18,714 mm agreements with educational entities to strengthen recreation and sports programs, 10,304 mm technical, administrative and financial support of sports federations, 8,970 mm service provider fees, 7,121 mm security service, cleaning, cafeteria and tics technological services, 4,277 mm economic incentive for sports glories and athletes excellence and, 613 m development of activities for doping control, 18,827 mm Olympic Committee third payment support for games national coffee axis 2023 and Armenian municipality payment for construction of the aquatic complex,” said said justification.
The Ministry also assures that the Ministry of Sports has a delay in payments made with the budget assigned for 2023 and had a reserve of resources for the period of 2022.
President Gustavo Petro Minister of Sports Astrid Rodríguez January 9 2024 | Photo: WEEK
“Regarding the payments made by the Ministry of Sports, it is found that, as of December 5, 2023, only $1,700,000,000 of the $80,000,000,000 allocated from the resources for the 2023 period had been paid, in addition It is observed that due to the backlog of resources for the 2022 period (budgetary reserve), no payments were made, having an available balance of COP 102 mm,” says the MinHacienda in the letter.
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