More than $9 billion would have lost the Nation due to irregularities in the payment of rents in the Rosario Islands

The Office of the Comptroller General of the Nation reported that it found irregularities of about $9 billion in the management of the leases of the Rosario Islands by the National Land Agency (ANT). Faced with the finding, the national government announced that it will take legal action.

According to the tax authority, the ANT was not complying with the execution of contractual processes, pricing and occupancy control of vacant property in the Rosario Islands.

In a special performance by the Comptroller's Office, it was detailed that, of the 128 leases in the barrens of the Rosario Islands, 68 have expired, 31 are in arrears exceeding 90 days, while another 9 have not paid for more than five years, as NotiCentro 1 CM& was known.

The fiscal body added to that, according to the newspaper El Espectador, that they also found a deterioration in the portfolio of the National Land Agency and an uneconomic management to be able to recover the resources that have not been paid by the tenants of the Rosario Islands.

Romero then indicated to the same media outlet that, in the face of the warnings, those leases were renegotiated. “It is important to have a basis, an appraisal, to calculate the rent to be made, but it does not seem reasonable to us for a person who has a recreational house that pays, to pay a rent similar to those who have a hotel or a day pass. We believe that the State should participate more of these resources and reinvest them in the region,” said the comptroller delegate.

For his part, the Minister of Agriculture, Rodolfo Zea, said that they have already instructed the National Land Agency to take appropriate legal action to “launch or remove people who are illegally in those places.”

It should be recalled that last January the Comptroller General's Office had already alerted of the alleged loss of $5,134 million in those leases in the Rosario Islands, a figure to which they also added $737 million for not initiating executive collection proceedings, $4,013 million for not initiating administrative proceedings or to recover the money, and another $383 million for the collection of rental fees at lower prices.

In this regard, the tax authority indicated at the time that it was striking “the fact that, despite not complying with the provisions of current regulations, the contracts have not been terminated by the National Land Agency”, and the Comptroller's Office pointed out that this situation “would practically lead to the loss of all public resources owed by tenants in Islas del Rosario and San Bernardo”.

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