The evidence shows an illicit appropriation of more than 7.2 billion.
The Attorney General, Francisco Barbosa Delgado, announced at the sports and recreation complex ‘Tropical Park’ in San Andrés, which remains unfinished, an important result in the fight against corruption related to the alleged irregularities detected in the contract related to the construction of the park.
“A ‘white elephant’* in which a playground that costed more than 12 billion (12.241) was built. A robbery that was committed against this island and that is why I decided to prioritize the investigation a few months ago”, stated the Attorney General.
The Office of the Attorney General brought before court five people, including former officials of the Government, contractors and auditors, due to alleged irregularities in the precontractual and execution phases of the contract to build the sports and recreation park ‘Tropical Park’ in San Andrés.
The defendants were charged according to their alleged participation in the irregularities detected, as follows:
- Former Secretary of Tourism of the Governor´s Office of San Andrés, Paola Andrea Toro Piedrahita; and former Secretary of Infrastructure, Alejandro Lozano Bowie, with the execution of the contract without compliance with legal requirements.
- Former Secretary of Infrastructure, Ninosthka Hudson Hernández, with embezzlement and ideological falsehood in a public document.
- Contractor and legal representative of Tropical Park 17, Andrés Sanmiguel Castaño with embezzlement.
- Auditor Moisés Francisco Araujo Fuscaldo, with embezzlement and fake document.
The accounting, financial and technical experts of the Office of the Attorney General established that in the work contract 1865 dated December 20, 2017, which considered the construction of the park, there was an illicit appropriation of 7,248 million pesos. On the other hand, in the auditing contract 1873 of 2017, the resources involved allegedly amounted to COP 89’000,000.
Additionally, the investigations revealed alleged irregularities such as:
- Lack of Planning. It seems that there were not: market studies, a price per unit analysis, requests for permits and licenses, designs, or soil studies.
- The work contract was signed by a person without power of representation that the consortium authorized two days after the signing of the contract.
- 50% of the value of the advance given to the contractor was allegedly allocated to cover other matters that were not related to the ‘Tropical Park’ project and the auditor allegedly used part of the advance to pay tax obligations with DIAN.
- A retaining wall that was not planned in the initial project was built.
Likewise, there were activities that were paid and were not carried out. Others did not comply with the technical specifications and some were carried out in smaller amounts than those contracted.
- The auditor would have failed in the task of controlling and verifying the compliance of the contract.
When we speak, results follow.