2024-09-14 04:48:35
The former mayor of Cartagena, William Dau Chamatt (2020 – 2023), was suspended for seven months, a sanction confirmed by the Attorney General’s Office, for an overcost of more than 527 million pesos detected in the contracting of the School Feeding Program -PAE-, during the health emergency declared by the covid-19 pandemic.
The supervisory body also confirmed the eight-month suspension imposed on the then director of Educational Coverage of the city’s Education Secretariat, Alexandra Herrera Puente.
In a second instance ruling, the Disciplinary Chamber for the Trial of Elected Public Servants stated that the original contract, as well as the addition signed to provide daily food rations, contained overcharges for products such as rice, lentils, eggs and tuna, because the prior studies were not carried out properly.
Following the analysis of the contract by the National Directorate of Special Investigations of the Attorney General’s Office, it was found that those under investigation “acted to the detriment of public assets, since the signing of the bilateral agreement generated additional costs due to a prior and deficient cost study prepared by the Director of Educational Coverage, who did not consult the criteria of objectivity and reasonableness.”
You may be interested in: SuperSalud implements measures to protect health system resources in liquidation processes
Regarding the actions of the then Mayor Dau, the Public Prosecutor’s Office stated that the trust placed by him in the conduct of other public servants does not free him from responsibility “when provisions or regulations are superimposed that required him to comply with legal postulates and to act with greater diligence in the performance of his own duties.”
For these events, the Attorney General’s Office classified the conduct of those investigated as a very serious offense committed through gross negligence. The sanction is converted into wages earned at the time of the events, equivalent to $121,954,462 for the then mayor, and $85,414,984 in the case of Herrera Puente.
The ruling became final and will be executed immediately, given that the defendants are not currently holding elected office.
You can read: “Fuera Petro” was heard again during the match against Argentina