Colombia’s Prosecutor General’s Office intends to charge the country’s chief financial officer with up to four corruption charges over irregularities concerning the selling of two government office buildings and the renting of current offices, national media reported on Monday.
The Prosecutor General’s Office has requested the presence of Colombia’s Comptroller General, Sandra Morelli, for an interrogation over crimes of embezzlement, approving contracts without the proper legal requirements, false public documents, and wrongful interest in signing contracts to the tune of $40.63 million, according to Colombia’s El Espectador newspaper.
However, Morelli did not present herself for the interrogation on Monday as she apparently had “other compromises.”
Starting in 2011, Morelli sold two old offices buildings in Bogota being used by the Comptroller General’s Office for less than 40% of the buildings’ market value. The comptroller then proceeded to rent a new building and buy everything from flooring, doors, fire systems, couches, and cabinets, to air conditioning.
The two buildings were valued at a combined $18.73 million but were sold at about $7 million; a difference of approximately $11.7 million, according to El Espectador.
Between the selling of the two buildings, which Morelli said were unfit to work in, and the renting and upkeep of the new one, there was revealed some $40.63 million in irregularities with rent being $1.35 million per month beginning in 2012.
Morelli believed the accusations were personally driven by the bias of Prosecutor General Eduardo Montealegre over her alleged wire-tapping and illegal surveillance of two journalists that had been investigating the fiscal watchdog’s handling of the new offices.
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Last year, Morelli stated that Montealegre’s investigations were a “smoke screen” to look for information regarding a case that concerns the prosecutor general.
Sources
- Contralora Sandra Morelli no asistirá a interrogatorio en la Fiscalía (El Espectador)
- Los $76 mil millones que enredan a la contralora Morelli (El Espectador)
