Colombia’s Prosecutor General’s Office followed the Inspector General’s lead Friday by also opening an investigation into the former and current Agricultural Ministers’ role in the AIS subsidies scandal.
This decision comes two days after both the IG and the Comptroller General launched criminal cases against former minister Andres Felipe Arias and current minister Andres Fernandez for their alleged roles in the irregular and unfair distribution of agricultural subsidies in the Agro Ingreso Seguro (AIS) program.
So far some 45 state employees have submitted their testimonies to the PG’s Office, which intends to establish exactly who was implicated in the AIS subsidies distribution, reported newspaper El Espectador.
The scandal, which has been raging for several months, involved the Agricultural Ministry’s unfair distribution of approximately COP100 billion among some of Colombia’s most prominent families and companies instead of the money being delivered to poor farming communities, for which it was intended.