Security cameras and the frequent guest book of a 5-star hotel, located in the exclusive El Retiro neighborhood of Bogotá, have just become a key element in the forensic audit carried out by Ecopetrol to establish the steering and collection of million-dollar bribes in gas contracts at the state company.
EL TIEMPO’s Investigative Unit has in its possession the statement of a senior executive of the oil company from the staff closest to Ricardo Roa – the former president of the company – in which he assures that he was summoned there before the presidential runoff by two foreigners close to Casa de Nariño, who gave him instructions to carry out a million-dollar gas purchase contract through the Houston office.
‘Works for taxes’
This matter, revealed by this newspaper, has already been forwarded by Ecopetrol to the Prosecutor’s Office and, now, in the accounts of other state officials, Fiduprevisora and the name of an influential former minister from Gustavo Petro’s government have come to light.
According to testimonies already known at Ecopetrol and to which EL TIEMPO had exclusive access, another juicy slice of bribes that was taken out through the figure of Works for Taxes and fiduciary assignments through Fiduprevisora.
The steering of at least half a trillion pesos from the Ecopetrol group – including its subsidiaries and also Fenoge, a fund attached to the Ministry of Mines – had already been detected by the forensic audit ordered by the new chairman of the state company’s board, former minister Luis Felipe Henao, and which is headed by Ricardo Rodríguez Yee, an independent board member representing the crude oil and gas producing departments.
‘It’s crazy’: Benedetti
Henao and Rodríguez Yee, who opposed several board decisions during Roa’s era – with Petro majorities – have the support of Abelardo De La Espriella’s government.
Testimonies corroborate versions according to which some of the companies that executed contracts, especially photovoltaic solutions (solar panels), were recommended by a then minister who was not from the mining and energy sector.
EL TIEMPO’s Investigative Unit established that the name appearing for verification in the forensic audit is that of former Interior Minister Armando Benedetti. However, in communication with this newspaper, Benedetti was emphatic in distancing himself from the matter: “I declare myself surprised. That is crazy. I know nothing about that topic, you are talking to me about quantum physics.”
The old link
He also stated that he did not know 3 of the 4 names of Ecopetrol group officials with whom he is allegedly linked: “I only met Mr. Alexis Sánchez Loreo more than 16 years ago, when he worked in the Senate. But I have not heard from him since then.”
EL TIEMPO contacted Sánchez Loreo who began by stating that he joined Ecopetrol through a call for applications.
Also, that in the three positions he held – at Cenit and Ocensa – he never participated in processes to award solar panel contracts: “When I was head of administrative procurement at Cenit and Ocensa, I did not handle any contracts and when I was in charge as procurement manager at Ocensa, no such process was signed, but I know there are three solar panel projects that have been ongoing for three years, they are not new.”
In any case, an initial list of 14 contracts, worth more than half a trillion pesos, has already been delivered for the supply and installation of solar solutions in Cesar, Cauca, Casanare, La Guajira, Tolima, Putumayo, Arauca, Nariño, and Santander.
“Matches were found in some of these, in the names of the suppliers,” explained an informed source.
Audit, expanded
And this is where the meetings at the luxurious hotel where state officials and contractors were summoned fit in.
“What Dr. Rodríguez Yee is already verifying is that the supply of solar panels is also linked to one of those foreigners who operated from the hotel. And in the complaints he has in his hands, former minister Benedetti is mentioned,” an informed source who remains in the company told EL TIEMPO.
He added that the case in the Ecopetrol group fits with the last-minute purchase for 164 billion pesos, which was stopped at the Non-Conventional Energy and Efficient Energy Management Fund (Fenoge).
Indeed, on August 13, the process was suspended after the Procuraduría issued alerts of irregularities and even dismissed the head of that fund: Brayan Giraldo Ruiz, who has been emphatic that all his management was transparent.
“This last one appears in a video from early January delivering solar panels to 200 families in the Las Malvinas neighborhood of Barranquilla, in an event attended by then Minister of Mines, Edwin Palma. That same month another ceremony was held to deliver 1,628 photovoltaic solutions, but this time in Barrancabermeja,” the same source told EL TIEMPO.
He added that another case under investigation is the delivery of 317 solar panels worth 7.6 billion pesos in the San Luis village, in Maicao, La Guajira, by Hocol.
Fiduprevisora itself uploaded a video showing the visit to the area by senior officials of that entity and Hocol. Again, the mechanism used was Works for Taxes.
‘The Rib’
But Fiduprevisora is not the only target recently included in the forensic audit.
Contracts awarded by Ecopetrol’s Corporate Vice Presidency of Territorial Transformation (VTT) are also being reviewed, to award 8 megawatts of photovoltaic power equivalent to installing approximately 20,000 solar panels of 400 volts.
Again, sources from the oil company began providing information according to which the same pattern applied in Fiduprevisora, was done through the Energy Communities program, Ecopetrol’s community project to produce, consume, and manage renewable energy in rural areas of Colombia.
“In that internal chapter, what is being investigated are alleged calls from an influential young man known as ‘the Rib’, who had requested a percentage of those contracts to give to friendly firms,” an Ecopetrol executive assured EL TIEMPO.
That same request would have passed through the state company’s Executive Vice Presidency of Energies for the Transition, headed by Bayron Triana.
The latter admitted 8 days ago to EL TIEMPO’s Investigative Unit that he received pressures from Casa de Nariño to sign a multimillion and opaque liquefied gas contract, weeks before that government expired.
(Consult all articles from EL TIEMPO’s Investigative Unit here)
After the revelations of the young engineer, the state company indicated that they will request that he be heard in a statement by the Prosecutor’s Office.
INVESTIGATIVE UNIT
u.invetigativa@eltiempo.com
@UinvestigativaET
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