The Office of the Attorney General suspended the mayors of Malambo and Armenia for three months for alleged mismanagement of money intended to serve the population affected by the coronavirus pandemic, the entity reported on Saturday.
The measure confirms the sanction imposed months before by the Public Ministry against the mayor of Malambo, Rummenigge Monsalve Álvarez, as part of an investigation for signing a contract for 4,000 million pesos (one million dollars), to buy food for the poorest.
According to the Office of the Attorney General, this contract does not meet the legal requirements, since it was done with legal entities that would not have the logistical, legal and financial capacity to carry it out.
Malambo is a municipality in the Barranquilla metropolitan area, capital of the Atlántico department, one of the main outbreaks of the coronavirus since of the 84,442 infections in the country, 20,246 are in that region.
The case of the mayor of Armenia, capital of the Quindío department, José Manuel Ríos Morales, has to do with alleged irregularities in the surveillance of the celebration and execution of four contracts for more than 1,590 million pesos (about $ 425,000 today).
The Public Prosecutor’s Office investigates Ríos for possible abuse of the contractual powers that apparently led to the improper selection of unsuitable providers, through the direct contracting mechanism, during the coronavirus-derived health emergency.
On June 2, the Attorney General’s Office provisionally suspended Ríos Morales for three months, and now the decision is confirmed by the Disciplinary Chamber of the Public Ministry.
On the other hand, the Office of the Attorney General asked the Ministry of Health that, given the high number of positive cases of coronavirus among workers in the health sector in the Atlantic, which are 524, and the more than 531 who are in isolation in Barranquilla, “take actions urgent for the delivery of results, permanent screening and guarantee of service offer “.
“Clearly, the described situation represents serious risks for the guarantee of the public supply of health services in that region of the country and demands immediate actions to ward off the associated epidemiological risks,” the Attorney General’s Office said in a letter addressed to the Minister of Health, Fernando. Ruiz.
2 mayors suspended for corruption in contracts for COVID-19.
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