The prosecution said Monday that it had reached a plea agreement with several corrupt former executives of Colombia’s disaster management agency UNGRD.
In the deal, the former UNGRD executives and a former contractor agreed to cooperate with justice in return for reduced sentences.
The suspects were being prosecuted over their alleged role in the embezzling of funds meant to combat the effects of a major drought that struck the northern La Guajira province last year.
Charged former UNGRD chiefs
- Olmedo Lopez (former director)
- Sneyder Pinilla (former deputy director)
- Luis Eduardo Lopez (former contractor)
- Pedro Rodriguez (former judicial assistant)
- Luis Carlos Barreto (former risk assessment chief)
The deal would allow the prosecution to investigate if other government officials and contractors were involved in corruption with the outsourcing of the UNGRD’s disaster response functions.
The deal also contains an agreement about the return of hundreds of thousands of dollars that were embezzled by the former executives and the former contractor in the botched attempt to offer relief to La Guajira,
The former contractor and the former UNGRD chiefs are suspected of having embezzled funds from other multiple projects.
Lopez and Pinilla, the main suspects in the embezzlement scandal, have additionally claimed that they granted contracts to third parties to secure congressional support for government reforms.
These allegations are being investigated by both the Prosecutor General’s Office and the Supreme Court, which is the only judicial body allowed to investigate congressmen.
A preliminary investigation by the Comptroller General’s Office suggests that corruption at the UNGRD became systemic after the government of former President Ivan Duque sought to speed up UNGRD procedures in response to the coronavirus pandemic in 2020.
The UNGRD’s current director, Carlos Alberto Carrillo, revoked multiple contracts signed by his predecessor over suspicions that these contracts would also have been the result of bribes.
