“Petro presidente” campaign funds will be scrutinized by the National Electoral Council

The National Electoral Council decided on Tuesday, February 28, to put a magnifying glass on the financial movements of the “Petro Presidente” campaign, less than a week after Editorial House Weather revealed that she had to clarify a series of inconsistencies related to expense invoices as part of the first round of elections

However, the decision of the CNE was due to the fact that the council received a communication in which an anonymous person denounced inconsistencies related to this question.

Indeed, according to a media scoop immediately quoted, one of the magistrates, Benjamín Ortiz, It was he who ordered the opening of a preliminary investigation into “alleged irregularities in the financing and presentation of the statements of income and expenditure for the electoral campaign of the first and second presidential rounds of the Historical Pact Coalition”.

On the basis of an anonymous complaint, the magistrate ordered three actions to advance the investigation: the first was made at the Directorate of Electoral Management of the National Registry of Civil Status, send the electoral forms of the act of registration of the candidate for the presidency at the time, Gustavo Petro.

In this regard, it should be mentioned that this address will have a period of five working days following the communication of this order, dated February 28, 2023, to deliver the requested documentation.

The second request was National Electoral Council Political Financing Fund entity from which it was commissioned, send on file a complete copy of the campaign income and expense reports. This request also has a period of five working days following the communication of this order, dated February 28, 2022.

And finally, he asked that President Gustavo Petro be informed as soon as possible of the ongoing investigation.

Now, what exactly does the anonymous letter, which was also delivered to the Attorney General’s office, say? It begins by referring to “facts widely known to Colombians, regarding the corrupt acts of the former Secretary General of the Department of Social Prosperity, Mr. Jonathan Ramírez Nieves, who unfortunately was the main advocate for the political campaigns of the Historic Pact, in 2022″.

In view of this mention, specifies the document, “we request an immediate investigation into the accounts, reports, minutes, accounting movements and movements of the accounts of the 2022 political campaigns”.

Immediately afterwards, the anonymous referred to the official’s recent departure, after an audio was broadcast in which he spoke of an alleged, apparently low-cost tender.

“What do I need, and I don’t know how to close this petition, I need a lot of people in the tender, a lot of people, several companies, which are yours, that we puts in and what…”, is heard in an audio file.

Following this episode, Prosperidad Social announced its resignation from public opinion with a brief statement: “Faced with the complaint published in the media regarding possible acts of corruption, the General Management informs that the Secretary General, Jonathan Ramírez Nieves , resigned from office to clarify information that undermines the good reputation of the DPS“, indicated at the time the entity.

Finally, the anonymous letter today in the hands of the CNE added that “Jonathan Ramírez Nieves and Mr. Ricardo Roa (campaign manager) broke the law by not reporting cash donations received at campaign headquarters and by handling money in personal accounts, misusing campaign money, using an account other than the one authorized by the Honorable CNE.

In addition, the Anonymous claims that the Historical Pact did not timely and clearly present the reports and materials before this control entity, in violation of the law.