Sweden, Norway and Switzerland have reportedly asked Colombia to respond to concerns over the possible mismanagement of foreign contributions to the country’s peace process.
According to newspaper El Tiempo, the ambassadors of the sponsor countries said they shared a “general concern about the integral management of the Sustainable Colombia Fund” (FCS) in a letter to post-conflict minister Rafael Pardo.
The majority of the agreements made in a peace agreement with Marxist FARC guerrillas were never executed, according to independent observers.
Sweden, Norway and Switzerland asked Pardo to “establish a clear route so that there are no more delays in the execution of the funds and this is done in an entirely transparent manner,” El Tiempo reported.
The ambassadors also wanted to know why one of the directors of the FCS was fired and reportedly asked to “create the possibility to discuss the qualifications that are needed for an optimal performance of the FCS.”
According to El Tiempo, the foreign governments are particularly concerned about the government’s failure to execute projects that would allow demobilized guerrillas to sustain themselves.
So far, only one of dozens of these projects has been approved, leaving the majority of the 14,000 FARC members without income.
The United Nations, which monitors the peace process, said in December that more than half of the demobilized FARC members had left the reintegration camps where they were waiting for the resources necessary to begin agricultural or fishing projects.
Government sources told the newspaper that Finance Minister Mauricio Cardenas met with the foreign government representatives last week at a meeting of the Inter-American Development Bank in Mendoza, Argentina.
A bulk of labor projects for the former guerrillas are expected to be announced within the coming days, almost a year and a half after the beginning of the peace process.
The sponsor countries are reportedly waiting to hear about the specifics of the promised projects.