In Bahía Solano, the ombudsman opened several disciplinary investigations to determine possible perpetrators of irregularities in the execution of resources of the General Participation System.
The municipal representative of Bahía Solano opened five previous inquiries in order to carry out the investigations that are necessary to determine the possible irregularities found in the review of compliance with the execution of the resources of the General Participation System of the municipality in force 2019 and thus determine the possible public servant(s) responsible for the omissions or irregularities.
The first inquiry is based on a finding regarding the supervision of agreement 049 of 2018 corresponding to the School Food Program, PAE.
The second inquiry refers to the Construction Budget Lag 2019.
“The ombudsman observed that the municipality of Bahía Solano did not issue an administrative act of constitution of the accounts payable corresponding to the 2018 and 2019 periods.”
“In the same way, when carrying out the confrontation of the values contained in Resolution No. 1532 of December 31, 2019, by means of which the budget reserves of the 2019 validity are constituted for an amount of $887,651,854, with the budget execution of expenses, it is observed that they were constituted for a higher value, since according to the budget execution the reserves amount to $509,479,282 and the accounts payable to $1,137,398,279”.
“The foregoing could be said to be due to weaknesses in the verification and monitoring of budget information, since they present inconsistencies which must be investigated.”
Another of the findings that warranted the opening of a third indignation corresponds to the incorporation of financial returns.
“In this, when analyzing the bank statements of the accounts where the municipality of Bahía Solano administered the resources of the General Participation System in force in 2019, it was established that financial returns of $6,684,719 were generated, verifying the decrees of addition and reduction of the income budget and expenses of the 2019 validity issued by the municipal administration, it was established that the financial returns from the SGP were not added, so it is necessary to determine what happened with them “
The fourth inquiry is related to the accounting records of the FONPET resources.
“The agent of the public ministry in Bahía Solano, when verifying the financial statements of the Municipality, certified with a cut-off date of December 31, 2019, as well as the information provided to the General Accounting Office of the Nation, detected that the territorial entity did not made an accounting record of the item assigned for the FONPET component, corresponding to the 2019 term, in the amount of $57,163,866”.
“It states that said situation could have arisen due to the weakness of the financial and accounting area in the process of conciliation of the information of the resources assigned corresponding to the transfer of the General System of Participation FONPET, which leads to the financial statements not reflecting the financial reality of the territorial entity for said validity.
Another of the inquiries or prior investigations carried out by the municipal representative has to do with the supervision of Agreement 01 of 2019 related to the PAE School Food Program.
According to the official, Law 1474 of 2011, in its article 83, establishes: “In order to protect administrative morality, to prevent the occurrence of acts of corruption and to protect the transparency of contractual activity, public entities are obliged to permanently monitor the correct execution of the contracted object through a supervisor or an auditor, as appropriate”.
“The supervision will consist of the technical, administrative, financial, accounting and legal follow-up that on the fulfillment of the object of the contract, is exercised by the same state entity when they do not require specialized knowledge.”
The representative says that the municipality of Bahía Solano signed Agreement No. 1 of 01/28/2019 with a Foundation for 97 days of regular PAE operation and 153 single-day days, in order to “Join efforts to provide food service school to children, adolescents and young people registered, prioritized and focused on the official enrollment SIMAT: of the Institutions and official educational centers of the municipality of Bahía Solano, within the agreement 0049 of December 28, 2018, entered into between the government of the department of Chocó and the municipality of Bahía Solano, in accordance with the previous studies prepared by the entity and the technical and administrative guidelines of the PAE – MEN, contained in relation 16432 of 2015.
“There are reports resulting from audits where it was determined that the municipal administration of Bahía Solano did not provide a technical, administrative, financial, accounting, and legal follow-up report on compliance with the object of the contract, which would allow establishing the performance of this work permanently. and that reflect the timely monitoring of the service provided by the operator, contrary to what is established in the previous regulations; The municipal administration of Bahía Solano did not provide the information regarding the execution of Agreement No. 001 of 01/28/2019, which did not allow the competent entity to carry out the analysis against compliance with it at the time, we have evidence where the Comptroller’s Office requested the initiation of the Sanctioning Administrative Process; The reports of the supervision and control exercised in the execution of the PAE for the 2019 term, in the municipality of Bahía Solano, were not presented, nor were the follow-up reports that allow establishing the fulfillment of this task on a permanent basis and that reflect the timely follow-up to the service provided by the operator, contrary to what is established in the aforementioned regulations, are serious situations that must be clarified in the respective investigation”.
The Ombudsman added: “These inquiries are of a prior nature, they are opened in order to determine those possibly responsible for the omissions and/or irregularities in accordance with the probative material that we have collected, which may be controversial by those disciplined, with these investigations not it means that they are already guilty, those involved are guaranteed all the conditions to guarantee due process and their right to defense and contradiction where they can prove if they are innocent; As surveillance and control entities, we have the obligation, in accordance with our functions, to investigate any action or fact that goes against the duties of the public function. For this reason, and in accordance with the findings, we proceeded to initiate preliminary investigations and in the coming weeks. Approximately another six will be issued as it is our obligation in accordance with the functions that the law grants us, but there can be full assurance that due process is guaranteed to all those involved, we cannot specify anything more in this regard due to the reservation of the summary that should exist, of all these findings, a copy will be certified to other entities such as the prosecutor’s office so that within their functions they also carry out the investigations of the case and determine whether or not there are merits to initiate the respective criminal proceedings.