The Office of the Attorney General of the Nation (FGN), dismissed and disqualified the former governor of Arauca Ricardo Alvarado Bestene (2016-2019), who signed a contract for the provision of the School Food Program (PAE) in the department, which presented cost overruns for more than 8,600 million pesos. The sanction was eight years, during which time he will not be able to hold any public office.
Along with him, the department’s then contracting manager, Édgar Alfonso Cadena Díaz, and the former ad hoc education secretary Norma Cecilia Cabrera Pérez, were also sanctioned. The first for having given the green light to the contract, despite the irregularities it presented; the second, processed the additions of time that were made to the execution of the contract, which were two, and an addition in economic matters of more than 4,300 million pesos.
According to the control and surveillance body, the contract for the provision of services in question is 174 of 2016 and its cost overruns lasted during the time of its execution.
“There was a real variation in the price of the ration for lunch equivalent to 53.74%, that is, $1,181.77 per lunch, and for the morning/afternoon food supplement it was 13.23%, that is, $271, 98 per complement”, explained the National Directorate of Special Investigations of the Attorney General’s Office.
The Government determined the contract budget by increasing the total cost of the ration by 10.85%, which had been established in 2016. Said increase corresponds to the Consumer Price Index (CPI). However, the Attorney General’s Office identified that the value assigned to the ration involved components other than food.
The Delegate Disciplinary Prosecutor’s Office for Judgment 1 decided to categorize the conduct of the three former officials sanctioned as a very serious misdemeanor by way of very serious negligence.
“The appeal proceeds against this decision before the Disciplinary Chamber for the Judgment of Public Servants of Popular Election,” the control body concluded.
The alleged links of the former governor of Arauca with the ELN
In 2021, Ricardo Alvarado was charged with contract crimes without compliance with legal requirements, embezzlement for appropriation in favor of third parties, financing of organized crime groups and aggravated conspiracy to commit a crime.
The then governor of the department was captured in 2021 along with José Facundo Castillo, who also held the same position, for allegedly having ties to the Domingo Laín Sáenz Front of the National Liberation Army (ELN). Both are being investigated for having entered into million-dollar contracts with members of the armed group.
“The Prosecutor’s Office confirmed the existence of abundant probative material, through which it indicated that Alvarado entered into and maintained alliances with members of the illegal armed group the National Liberation Army (ELN) in order to commit various acts that violate the participation mechanisms. democracy, the administration and public security”, detailed Ismael López, the delegate of the Attorney General’s Office in the case against ex-governor Alvarado.
According to El Espectador, commanders of the front would have agreed to help ex-governor Ricardo Alvarado in his campaign in different municipalities of the department, in exchange for bribes in public contracts, which represented 10% of the contracts that were concluded.
Even the then official would have negotiated with the ELN blows against the public force. In addition, he allegedly gave a van to one of the front commanders, alias Bateman.
Despite the fact that the Attorney General’s Office and the Prosecutor’s Office requested the Superior Court of Bogotá that Alvarado be sent to jail as a preventive measure while the investigations against him are carried out, in November 2021 he was granted house arrest. José Facundo Castillo was insured preventively in a prison. These, while his legal situation is resolved. with Infobae