The director of the National Unit for Risk and Disaster Management (UNGRD), Javier Pava, announced at a press conference the findings of alleged irregularities in the contracting of the entity, which, among other things, include concentration of contracts, as well as contracting without financial support.
Thus, according to Pava, for example, it was found that more than 23 projects were contracted with Carlos Francisco Díaz-Granados Guerra, who registered 23 projects between 2021 and 2022 in the Caribbean and Santander region, totaling more than half a billion pesoswhich the director considers “an explicit favour”.
Likewise, the director of the entity revealed the discovery of contracts for 332 billion pesos in supply orders (yellow machinery) without financial support (Certificates of Budget Availability or CDP), that is, they have no support.
According to Pava, “the outgoing government left this entity in debt with this value, without having the resources to respond.” In this way, there are claims from many of the yellow machinery contractors, since the unit has not been able to respond.
In addition, the official maintained, several of the contracts were carried out without the signature of the contractor and even without that of the previous director of the National Unit for Risk and Disaster Management.
But the problems in contracting not only occurred in works, but also in humanitarian aid, such as emergency food, “but only 12 percent was used for that purpose, the rest of the resources were classified as ‘other expenses’, so that it is not clear what this money was used for, which amounts to more than 4,500 million pesos.”
And he added: “From the contracting associated with risk and disaster management, we found that of the mitigation projects, we have 28 percent of damaged works, with execution problems, because they were contracted without designs.”
Pava also talked about18 projects with indications of irregularities that are already being investigated by the Directorate of Information, Analysis and Immediate Reaction of the Comptroller General of the Republic.
Similarly, the Prosecutor’s Office is in the judicial investigation stage against projects with alleged indications or irregularities in their feasibility and technical approval.
“There have also been cases of some congressmen linked to contract manipulationwhere there are alleged internal and external responsibilities of the entity, for which internal investigations, internal control and even the retirement of some officials will take place,” Pava said.
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