Colombia’s Constitutional Court ruled Wednesday that those convicted of corruption will never be allowed to be contracted by the State.
The Court found articles 1 and 2 of the 2011 Anti-Corruption Statute to be unconstitutional. This statute placed a maximum 20-year ban on hiring individuals found guilty of corruption or “offenses relating to membership, promotion and funding of illegal groups, crimes against humanity, bribery or drug-trafficking in Colombia or abroad.”
The maximum time-limit was lifted making the ban “indeterminate in time and therefore permanent,” according to the prosecutor general.
The ruling came on the same day investigations began into allegations Colombia’s transport minister has illegally granted government contracts to a family business.