The recent scandal over cost overruns in the purchase of tank trucks that were supposed to be delivering water in La Guajira is especially sensitive for the Government of Gustavo Petro.
He sows doubts, at the same time, about two of his core projects: the fight against corruption and the plans to alleviate the thirst of the most desert department in Colombia.
This is recognized by the senior official, who resigned from his position due to these complaints on Thursday night: “I have made the decision to present irrevocable resignation from my position so that the questions that I face today do not muddy the anti-corruption flags that this political project “wields,” says the letter that López sent to the president, and with which he announced his retirement from the direction of the National Disaster Risk Management Unit (UNGRD).
The fate of Olmedo López, a left-wing Antioquia politician, was uncertain since in mid-February W Radio revealed that the 40 tank trucks that the UNGRD had purchased in January to reinforce the department's water supply capacity had not yet left the parking lot of the Uribia military base.
In the following days, increasingly alarming details became known about possible irregularities in this contract.
Not only was an extra cost of over 20,000 million pesos (about 5 million dollars) reported, in a purchase of more than 46,800 million pesos (about 12 million dollars), but the selected company did not have experience in the subject: it had a capital of around 726 million pesos (about $185,000), it was mainly dedicated to the import and export of groceries and canned products, and its owner, Roger Alexander Pastas Fuertes, was a 26-year-old veterinary medicine student. years who claimed to have obtained the contract with relative ease, after receiving an email in which the UNGRD asked for a quote.
Olmedo assures in his resignation letter that what worked against him was his “lack of experience”—he did not have a career as a public manager or in disaster risk management—but he assures that he did not engage in any act of corruption.
“I have complete certainty and conviction that I will more than demonstrate my transparent actions in each of the actions. Perhaps my lack of experience in the public sphere was my great weakness, but not the ability to restore rights to the victims and bring life expectancy for Wayuu children, with water in La Guajira,” he says.
López's greatest experience has been in politics, as a councilor of his native Caramanta (Antioquia), candidate for the Governor of Antioquia in 2015 for the Democratic Pole and secretary of the Environment of Itagüí.
He studied economics, and his career took off as a result of his activism in the leftist party, of which he became president.
There he was close to Senator Clara López, who has denied that he is her share in the Government, and to the president of Colpensiones, Jaime Dussán.
The complaints went beyond the journalistic sphere and on February 20, the Prosecutor's Office announced that it had opened an investigation "to determine if there are irregularities to favor a contractor and other possible acts constituting a crime around this issue."
This Thursday the Transparency Secretariat of the Presidency of the Republic joined in, which indicated that it would sue him criminally, a decision that became the prelude to his resignation.
Although this Wednesday the UNGRD had published a statement in which it assured that López would continue in office, with the first accusation of that caliber from the Petro Executive against one of the officials freely appointed by the president, the president distances himself from a man who He did extensive work on his 2018 and 2022 presidential campaigns.
López did not manage to complete a year at the head of the entity in charge of coordinating the management of disasters associated with phenomena of natural, socio-natural, technological and unintentional human origin.
He had assumed leadership of the UNGRD in April 2023, after the departure of Javier Pava.
The now former director was already in the crosshairs of the Comptroller's Office, which in December 2023 suspended him for a month, as it found that he had not met their requirements to provide information regarding the projects under his charge in Mocoa (Putumayo) and Piojó (Atlántico ), places where serious landslides occurred during previous governments.
That same month, two columns by journalist Juan Pablo Calvás published in this medium drew attention to another situation.
The general editor of W Radio recalled that Olmedo was simultaneously listed as interim manager of the Adaptation Fund, an entity attached to the Ministry of Finance that is responsible for managing multimillion-dollar resources to carry out projects that allow the country to prepare and adapt to the conditions that the climate emergency.
The text urged the Comptroller's Office to investigate: “It is enough for Comptroller Zuluaga to request a comparison of the number of contractors and contracts that the entity has had in 2023 and compare them with recent years.
From an average of 150 contracts and contractors between 2020 and 2022, this year the figure doubled and reached 325 contracts.
This would make sense if the Adaptation Fund projects had multiplied throughout this year;
However, there are no new projects,” stated one of the columns.
Olmedo left the position when he was suspended by the Comptroller's Office, but continued two more months at the UNGRD.
He will now face multiple investigations outside the Government.
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