The Special Trial Chamber of the supreme court of justice found guilty the former governor of the department of Putumayo Carlos Alberto Palacewho must pay a sentence of four years and three months in prison.
Palacios was declared liable for the crime of contract without complying with the legal requirements, and in addition to the custodial measure, he must pay a fine of 54.68 SMLV, and was disqualified from exercising public office for 62 months.
The court ruled Palace for irregularities in an inter-institutional cooperation agreement that he signed with the Integral Foundation for the Development of Territories (territories), in November 2006.
The subject of the contract was “the elaboration and design of the Citizen Coexistence Manual for the Department of Putumayo”, the value of which amounted to 120 million pesos. The sentence is at first instance, so an appeal continues
In the opinion of the magistrates, this agreement was reached to favor this foundation, they assured that Palacios did not take into account the principles that govern state contracts, nor article 209 of the Political Constitution, which determines that: “the administrative function It is at the service of the general interest and develops on the basis of equality, morality, efficiency, economy, speed, impartiality and advertising”.
“The absolute absence of a real objective selection process and the obvious lack of suitability of the non-profit entity to which the contract was awarded, highlights the objective typicality of the fact, the suitability referred to in governor of the department of Putumayo, Carlos Alberto Palacios Palacio, knowing that they did not meet the essential conditions, concluded the agreement, taking into account the conspiracy put in place to favor the attribution in favor of Funterritorios (…)” , underline the sentence.
The decision indicated that at the time, the governor had affected the principle of objective selection of the contractor, since the aptitude, experience or administrative capacity of the foundation to achieve the objective of the contract had not been verified.
A similar situation occurred with the fit-up requirement, since the agreement did not specify the elements that would be part of the coexistence manualhighlighting the omission in coexistence and opportunity studies.
During the process, the attorney general’s office explained that there were obvious personal relationships between the bidders, since Edith Isabel Carrillo Carrillo, legal representative of Funterritorios who signed the agreement, testified in court that she was Wilson Yecid’s wife Ávila Cruz, who represented Fundemi, another of the promoters.
While the third offer was signed by Inés Vargas Osorio, who is the wife of César Rigoberto Riascos Bastidas, one of the members of the territorieswho was responsible for developing coexistence manual.
“The latter acted on behalf of Funterritorios and led the work team that prepared and developed the draft Citizen Coexistence Manual of the Department of Putumayo and even received the advance check that was drawn on behalf of the ‘contracting entity’.
In 2021, the same chamber condemned palace palace for the same charge, the decision was adopted by a majority of the house, which determined that he had acted with intent and violated the principles of public order, by failing to meet the requirements to deal and celebrate with the Foundation for Ecological and Social Development ( Fedes ), as stated at the time Colpress.