Colombia’s Prosecuter General’s Office is to question 22 people about alleged irregularities in the awarding of $116 million in subsidies to flower growers, reported newspaper El Espectador.
The 22 suspects must now answer for subsidies that were not used as they were meant to be.
Many of those being brought in for questioning are from Banco Agrario, the agrarian bank, and Finagro, the fund for financing the agricultural sector.
A prosecutor of the national anti-corruption unit set December 12 as the date for proceedings to commence.
Former President Alvaro Uribe authorized the giving of subsidies to flower growers eight days before the end of his administration, due to a strengthening of the peso which was negatively impacting exporters.
The Agriculture Minister Juan Camilo Restrepo stopped the payments in October last year because of alleged irregularities.