In the case of “ghost students”, the Attorney General’s Office dismissed the former mayor of Buenaventura

Due to alleged irregularities in the management of resources intended for students in the municipality of Buenaventura, Valle del Cauca, the Attorney General’s Office sanctioned the former mayor of the port district Bartolo Valencia Ramos with dismissal and general disability for ten yearswho committed the crime of property damage while holding this position between 2012 and 2015,

The Public Ministry showed that the former president of this town located in the Colombian Pacific, allocated nearly $3,500 million from the General Participation System to pay for two contracts for the provision of educational services for 3,880 students, of which 2,321 were non-existent minors, according to the findings of auditing firms contracted by the entity.

“In the use of the moneys of the General Participation System for education, both the public interest and public resources were involved, and due to its position as the first contracting authority of the District, it should tend to verify said public interest and respect the principle of responsibility that regulates administrative contracting”, indicated the control body, which evidenced a loss of $2,088 million.

Likewise, the entity found that Valencia Ramos, while serving as mayor of this location located in the southwest of Colombia, included the Ana Victoria Teaching Center in the Bank of Bidders, “making it eligible to contract educational services, and subsequently entered into four contracts with it,” despite failing to meet requirements such as suitability, recognized track record and infrastructure.

In this sense, the Attorney General’s Office determined in the ruling of first instance that the former mayor incurred in “very serious fault as a very serious fault for ignoring the principle of responsibility of state contracting and for irregularly handling money that should be allocated to the presentation of a quality educational service”.

The Public Ministry reported last March that the payment of educational services by ghost students in Buenaventura was not the only irregularity that was found during the mandate of Bartolo Valencia Ramos. As established by the control body, the former mayor of Buenaventura and the former secretary of Education of the municipality Yenny María Angulo Quintana, incurred alleged irregularities in contracts with which they sought to expand the coverage of the education sector in the municipality.

The Public Ministry showed that the Ana Victoria Teaching Center also did not have adequate physical infrastructure to receive a population of two thousand students, a figure offered by that institution at the time of signing its contractual relationship with the municipality. Due to the above, that educational establishment made use of other facilities to comply with the contract.

“The Ana Victoria Teaching Center provided the service through other educational institutions that were also not registered in the bank of bidders, that is, with facilities other than those presented for inclusion in the bank of bidders, which confirms the absence of the attributes of recognized trajectory and suitability”, explained the Office of the Attorney General of the Nation.

On that occasion, the Attorney General’s Office issued disciplinary charges against former mayor Valencia Ramos, classified as very serious offenses committed by way of very serious fault. The alleged conduct committed by the former Secretary of Education, Yenny María Angulo, received the same qualification, adding another investigation to the former president who has been detained on several occasions for acts of corruption.

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