The Comptroller General’s Office has started a tax audit of members of the board of directors for Industria de Licores del Valle (the Valle del Cauca Liquor Industry) and its former bosses for alleged losses of state money amounting to an estimated COP107.2 billion ($57.4 million), Caracol Radio reported Wednesday.
The initiative for the audit came after the governor of the Valle del Cauca department requested a detailed investigation be carried out into a contract signed on April 7, 2008 between Industria de Licores del Valle and UT Comercializadora Logistica Integral, a marketing company for consumer products.
The fiscal watchdog carried out a commercial evaluation of the said contract and found that there were excesses in promotional plans which were exempt from taxes. This had an impact on public finances which could have reached COP59.4 billion($31.8 million).
The comptroller’s investigators also found that there was another monetary loss related to discounts to traders. The company may have established an additional discount of 8% on the price of the sale of its products from Licorera del Valle to its distributor which could have caused a loss of COP47.4 billion ($25.3 million).
Investigations are ongoing.