A lawyer filed charges against Cartagena Mayor Judith Pinedo and other municipal government employees on Tuesday for alleged irregularities in the awarding of an $8.5 million security contract.
Attorney Jaime Granados accused Pinedo and other officials from her administration of the crimes of conspiring to commit crimes, prevarication through action, prevarication through ommission and forming contracts without complying with legal requisites.
The lawyer is representing claims for the companies Vigilantes Maritima Comercial Ltda, (Vimarco) and Vigilancia Acosta Ltda (Vise), who say that the officials changed the rules in order to favor another company, Su Oportuno Servicio Ltda (SOS) in the contract.
“The legal regulations establish (…) a floor, a minimum that must be paid by each person that provides a security service, as much Vise as Vimarco was in this floor, Su Oportuno Servicio, Ltda (SOS) was above this, despite the fact of being this way at the moment of evaluation, they changed it and made it look like SOS was cheaper than Vimarco and Vise,” said Granados.
The lawyer also said that control bodies should investigate possibly more widespread instances of irregular awarding of contracts by the Cartagena municipal government, and that one of the SOS shareholders also figures as an awardee of two other contracts, in which he was allegedly favored illegally.