Prosecutor’s Office warns of a patrimonial detriment in the National Police.

The Comptroller General’s Office established an alleged patrimonial detriment of more than 12 million dollars in the purchase of a Legacy 600 VIP jet by the Police, to transport the maximum number of people, especially from operational groups such as COPES or anti-narcotics; however, it ended up being a luxury aircraft for 13 passengers, which did not respond to the need that was initially raised.

According to the watchdog, the initial need for the police was to buy planes with a capacity of 44 people; but finally, a VIP-type aircraft for executives was purchased, with a capacity 30% less than what was really required.

“This significantly hits the Police budget, because the global budget was $200 billion pesos and this purchase means just over $58 billion. In other words, with a single plane they ended up spending 41% of the budget that had been raised for three planes that were going to transport 44 passengers each,” said Luis Eduardo Parra, comptroller delegate for Defense and Security of the Office of the Comptroller General of the Nation. .

The details of the controversial purchase were revealed this Sunday in an audit report carried out by the Comptroller’s Office, which indicates that the former director of the National Police Jorge Luis Vargas, and deputy director Hoover Penilla, both currently retired from the Colombian National Police , they will face a process of fiscal responsibility for the way in which this luxury jet was acquired.

For his part, the former Director General of the National Police, General Jorge Luis Vargas stated, “I was the Director General of the Police and I do not handle the details of the purchase, but I was informed of compliance with all legal requirements. We do not affect the assets of the National Police, it was done by law of the Republic, and with a plan of needs. Our points of view were not taken into account in the audit and we hope that due process is respected. I am concerned about the way the Comptroller does things, I hope that there is legitimacy, legality and that they are technically very clear about this”.

Likewise, Police General Hoover Penilla declared that he did not have any type of interference in regards to the purchase of the planes, his only role in the process was to answer questions from some journalists.

“One day when the director of the Police was not there and I had to explain what the technicians told me,” Penilla said.

At the same time, he revealed that he also did not remember what had happened at the meeting on January 1, 2022, when the purchase decision was made at the sub-directorate of the National Police. That day they discussed the purchase of six planes and the $210,000 million that were earmarked for that mission.

In the investigation, the Comptroller discovered that two of the three companies that make up the consortium do not have any experience in the aeronautical sector and are associated with the world of construction, food service and agricultural machinery.

In addition, the Comptroller’s Office evidenced that the Police would have received the offer of two other aircraft of the same reference with a more recent model, fewer flight hours and a better price. One was located by the Colombian Air Force in the United States, and was worth 8.9 million dollars, three million dollars less than the one purchased by the Colombian Police. The other is that of the Presidency of Ecuador, which had three times less flight hours than the one that was purchased and which had a price of 8 million dollars.

For these reasons, the Comptroller General of the Nation will advance a process of fiscal responsibility against the managers who are behind this controversial purchase.

Similarly, this agency linked General Iván Hidalgo, manager of the CIAC, a mixed company that operated the purchase, to the investigation; General Ricardo Alarcón, Director of Anti-Narcotics and General Luis Ernesto García, Head of the Institution’s Planning Office.