The Inspector General’s Office confirms charges against former Agriculture Ministers Andres Felipe Arias and Andres Fernandez for the mis-allocation of government agricultural subsidies.
Other high-level officials from the Uribe administration have also been linked to the scandal, such as former manager of the Colombian Institute for Rural Development, Rodolfo Campo Soto.The Public Ministry, part of the Inspector General’s Office, determined that the three officials and 11 others engaged in conduct which “violates the disciplinary code.”
In mid-2009, Arias was implicated in a scandal over the misuse of funds from AIS subsidies, which were meant to help the rural poor but instead went to rich Colombian families, many of them donors to former President Alvaro Uribe.
The former minister recently turned down the offer to become Colombia’s ambassador to Italy “for the unity of political projects” and to demonstrate “the transparency of my public and private acts.”