The vice president of Colombia says that corrupt people have put the Government against the wall

The Colombian vice president, France Marquezasked the president this Monday Gustavo Pedro remove officials involved in corruption in the purchase of tankers to bring drinking water to the Caribbean department of La Guajiraof whom he said they put the “Government against the wall”.

“I didn’t help make such a big effort so that now some scoundrels put the Government against the wall.“, said Márquez at a public event in the city of Soachalocated south of Bogotá.

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A few weeks ago, the press reported the embezzlement of 46.8 billion pesos (around 12 million dollars) in the purchase of 40 tanker trucks to take water to the desert areas of the country. La Guajira through contracts concluded by National Disaster Risk Management Unit (UNGRD) that did not meet technical or legal requirements, which resulted in the loss of money.

At the heart of the scandal is Olmedo Lópeza left-wing politician who between April 2023 and February this year was director of UNGRDentity that allegedly also used money from this project to pay bribes to Senate presidents, Name Ivanand the Chamber of Deputies, André Streetto support the approval of the Government’s social reforms in Congress.

The vice-president also assured that she had fought against corruption all her life and that “Those who believe that they will continue here robbing the people, I believe that they are in the wrong place and must leave, with all due respect, Mr President”.

Given the growth of the scandal, Olmedo López asked for permission to testify before the Public Ministry and collaborate with the Court in exchange for criminal benefits and protection for him and his family.

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The Public Ministry also intends to hear Sneyder Pinillawho until March 6 was deputy director of Disaster Management at the UNGRD and who on Friday revealed the payment of bribes of 3,000 million pesos in cash (about 770,000 dollars today) to Name and 1,000 million pesos (about 257,000 dollars) to Street.

Another person involved in the case is the Presidential Advisor for the Regions, Sandra Ortizpresented his resignation to Petro today, while the Secretary of Transparency of the Presidency, Andrés Idárragaremains in office despite also being linked to the scandal.

Source: Elcomercio

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I am Jack Morton and I work in 24 News Recorder. I mostly cover world news and I have also authored 24 news recorder. I find this work highly interesting and it allows me to keep up with current events happening around the world.