Tegucigalpa, Honduras.
To “make his actions transparent and allow the investigative process to run impartially and shed the truth on the facts,” the director of Strategic Investments of Honduras (Invest-H) Marco Bográn, formalized his resignation on Saturday June 27 before the President Juan Orlando Hernández.
In the letter, the now former director ofand Invest-H exposes the boss Government the exceptional circumstances existing in the international market by the covid-19 pandemic, but he justifies that despite this he managed to acquire medical supplies at “reasonable prices”.
“We have been unfairly white from a huge number of veiled, open, unfounded and dunproportional and unprecedented, criticizing that we have not been efficient, that we have been slow on the one hand, and on the other saying that the procedures are not followed and, in addition, others claim that it was supposed to be possible to get lower prices in the international market”, Indicates.
Bográn added that in addition to the criticism there has been an evident bad faith of interest groups, and in his opinion, all these actors have tried to take advantage and they wanted to control the resources and purchases that during these 14 years and now in this pandemic, “we have efficiently managed with honesty and transparency ”.
Bogran’s resignation occurred two days after Invest-H’s board asked the president Juan Orlando Hernández their immediate separation, after the denunciations of supposed acts of corruption in the millionaire purchases of supplies, medical equipment and mobile hospitals.
Government without speaking
Until last night, the Presidency of the Republic was totally silent on the separation request and the resignation of Bográn made by the board of directors of Invest-H and did not issue any official pronouncement.
The removal request was sent on June 25 by the members of the board of directors, which make up Martha Dogido, Rocío Tábora, Maria Antonia Rivera, Eduardo Atala and Patricia Pérez.
Bográn is being investigated by the Public ministry for fraud, abuse of authority and embezzlement of public funds for the purchase of hospitals from a company of dubious origin and will give his statement on Thursday, July 2.
With that resolution, the board of directors distanced itself from Bográn’s actions and at its last meeting made a strong claim to him for having taken the decisions without consulting them and for having disobeyed the mandate that had been given to them since the previous March to carry out a financial and compliance.
“It was requested at the end of March and one of the claims that was made in this last meeting is that this audit had not started,” revealed Omar Rivera, executive of the National Convergence Forum (Fonac), whose organization is part of the Invest-H board of directors.
Rivera informed LA PRENSA that the departure of Bográn is aimed at repowering Invest-H, at strengthening the institution’s capacities and at seeking ways to regain credibility and trust through transparent management and permanent accountability.
He said that the fact that a person has acted in the wrong way does not mean that the institution cannot continue to lead the processes of acquisition and purchase of materials and equipment to face the pandemic. However, Carlos Hernández, representative of Transparency International chapter Honduras (ASJ-TI), announced that his organization will formally request the Government that henceforth purchases be handled by the Drug Purchase Trust of the Ministry of Health and Banco de Occidente.
Health and IHSS Statement
The Ministry of Health and the Honduran Social Security Institute (IHSS) In two separate statements they also distanced themselves from the decisions of the Invest-H director.
“The Ministry of Health has not had any type of participation in the acquisition process carried out by Invest-H,” he stated in relation to the report presented by ASJ this week that revealed a price premium. of $ 12.3 million in the purchase of mobile hospitals. Similarly, the IHSS indicated that its authorities have not participated in the decision-making and acquisition process of Invest-H or another institution.
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