2024-02-14 19:11:22
Three months before the end of the Pan American and Parapan American Games, the Santiago 2023 Corporation continues to take stock and balance the numbers following the historic event. Precisely, while carrying out this exercise, the entity encountered some unpleasant surprises. One of them is related to the agreement it had with Copec during October, November and December. The amount amounted to US$ 700 thousand in fuel loads ($ 575 million).
The episode was revealed following the misuse of the gasoline vouchers assigned for the event was detected. This is how the gas station company’s report showed that more than 150 unregistered licensees charged at their service stations. According to what was investigated, it was established that for all operations the password of an official linked to the corporation, who provided services until December of last year, was used.
With the background in hand, the executive director Harold Mayne-Nicholls decided to file a complaint for fraud and other fraud once morest individuals in the 8th Guarantee Court of Santiago, a procedure that was carried out last Monday with the sponsorship of the lawyer José Bernardo Rivera. The entity’s suspicion indicates that this former official or other people might have generated a significant economic benefit from the malicious use of the agreement, which must now be proven in court.
Of course, within the organization there is peace of mind that there was no fraud of state money nor was the amount of the exchange exceeded. However, the idea is not to leave unpunished a crime generated by the misuse of this benefit by one or more people who worked there.
Harold Mayne-Nicholls explains to El Deportivo the reasons why they decided to sue. “There is an issue, obviously, let’s call it legal, but more than that it is a moral issue that we also have the obligation to comply with,” says the executive director in relation to honoring the agreement and the support of Copec. “They supported us a lot and obviously we also have to take care of their image,” he adds.
“We detected this situation when we started collecting the information. There the number of cars jumped out at us. We had almost 700 cars and, wow, regarding 850 appeared there. So, there we asked Copec for more information and we found that there was adulteration and practically 20%, regarding 50 something million pesos, had been spent by someone who “I didn’t belong here in the corporation,” he explains.
“I made the decision and the board of directors was obviously informed. This is a decision that my position, so to speak, forces me to make, because in something of this type, company assets are involved and I must inform the board of directors obviously what was done regarding it,” he adds.
As for those responsible, Mayne-Nicholls affirms that the complaint provides information on the people in charge, but does not directly point to any of them. “We counted who the people were, but we mightn’t say, ‘this is the person who has the responsibility.’ We say who the person was in charge, but we have no way to say that this person is the one who committed this infraction, or this crime, call it whatever you want. We have no way of doing that. secure it. That is why we want the justice system to investigate it,” she says.
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