Governor of Chocó captured for irregularities in the contracting of biosafety elements

In recent hours, the CTI of the Prosecutor's Office issued the arrest warrant against the Governor of Chocó, Ariel Palacios Calderón, after a judge of the Bogotá Superior Court imposed a home insurance measure as allegedly responsible for several contracting irregularities.

Governor Palacios was temporarily removed from office.

It is worth remembering that the investigation against Governor Palacois focuses on contract No. 003 that was signed on April 3, 2020, almost a month after the first case of contagion was reported in the country, with the aim of guaranteeing the supply of biosafety elements in response to the covid-19 pandemic.

The contract was worth more than $220′000,000 and, despite the urgency of the pandemic, the Prosecutor's Office determined that it was awarded directly and in the middle of the process other anomalies had been committed such as lack of motivation and description of the need, quantity, type and destination of the items; in addition, alleged falsehoods in the pre-contractual stage and lack of suitability of the contractor.

“The governor would not have verified compliance with essential requirements, including that of publishing the contract in the Electronic Public Procurement System (SECOP) within three days after the conclusion. The evidence indicates that this was apparently done three months later,” said the Prosecutor's Office.

At the time of signing the contract, no case had been confirmed in the department of Chocó that it would have started until mid-April.

This is not the only contract under which the Governor of Chocó is investigated. The Prosecutor's Office also filed a statement of indictment a year ago with the Supreme Court of Justice for another tender that was signed two weeks later also to address the covid-19 pandemic.

The crimes contemplated in this charge are contract without compliance with legal requirements, undue interest in the conclusion of contracts and embezzlement by appropriation in the form of attempt, which Palacios Calderón would have committed when signing a contract for the provision of services No. 198 of April 15, 2020.

This contract was delivered directly to the Chocó Saludable Foundation, with the aim of holding health days and mitigating the impact of the pandemic in 27 municipalities in the department. The value amounted to $2,091′500,000, including 11 educational cycles in 116 indigenous, Afro-descendant and Rom-gypsy communities; as well as a plan for disseminating messages through parades, banners, banners, folding, wedges and audiovisual pieces, among other products.

“The conclusion of the aforementioned contract would have violated decrees and resolutions that establish the parameters of contracting, due to the situation caused by covid-19. In addition, it was known that no Health Providing Institutions (IPS) of the department were invited in the selection process. The call was addressed to entities from another region that, apparently, did not have the skills, profile, experience, technical and operational conditions. One of these, the Chocó Saludable Foundation”, says the prosecutor in this regard.

Likewise, the Prosecutor's Office questions the purpose of the preventive and advertising contract, because it would have ignored “the real needs of the prioritized populations, and neglected the deficiencies in public health”.

The Prosecutor's Office and the Attorney General's Office have been investigating these contracts since 2020, shortly after they were signed, which led to the suspension of Palacios Calderón for more than two months in a preventive manner by order of the Public Ministry. Likewise, he is the first president to reach imputation for the contracts signed for the care of covid-19.

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