Reyes Villa's group embezzled funds from the Hydrocarbons Tax and tricked the Treasury Department to purchase armored luxury vehicles instead of heavy machinery
The Prefecture of Cochabamba laid the terrain for a civil war
By Wilson Garcia Merida
October 2, 2008
Translated by Scott Campbell
[Spanish original]
(Datos & Analisis) - The final report of the General Comptroller of the Republic, which outlined the embezzlement of more than half a million dollars for the fraudulent purchase of luxury vehicles which were used for political proselytizing, and bought with none other than funds from the Hydrocarbons Tax, is nearly at the point of untangling an interminable web of corruption, similar to that in Pando, where the prefecture, under the leadership of Leopoldo Fernandez, was utilized towards the sole end of creating an environment to impose, by force, immoral and seditious "departmental autonomy."
Former prefecture functionaries Manfred Reyes Villa Bacigalupi, Johnny Ferrel Soria Galvarro, Adolfo Aponte Zambrana and Gustavo Navia Mallo, together with businessmen Roberto Dick Noya and Carlos Enrique Paz Grozdanovic, should return to the Prefecture of Cochabamba the exact sum of 3,632,743 bolivianos, equivalent to 553,909 USD, for embezzlement committed through the purchase of luxury vehicles for the unnecessary use of Reyes Villa and his collaborators. Several of these vehicles came with bulletproof glass and armor, as if ready to flee from war situations.
The expenses were paid for using funds from the Direct Hydrocarbons Tax (IDH) which were sneaked out of the Treasury Department in bad faith under the false argument that the money was to be used to acquire heavy machinery, which was never purchased, and the abovementioned vehicles were used to transport Reyes Villa's "boys" in their conspiratorial efforts against the central government.
Economist Gabriel Herbas, president of the House of Representatives Treasury Commission, investigated this incident and states that the illegal purchase of these vehicles has caused undeniable economic damage to the Prefecture of Cochabamba, budgeted for by the Safco Law (regarding government financial control), with the complication that the Departmental Roads Service (Sedcam), which should have benefited from this acquisition, did not receive a single vehicle.
The illegal action committed by prefecture employees consisted of the purchase of 26 very luxurious, frivolous vehicles, such as 13 SUVs that cost more than four million bolivianos, as well as 12 pickup trucks and a van for an approximate total of three million bolivianos, purchased from Toyosa and Taiyo Motors, totaling expenses of seven million bolivianos. Half of this sum should be returned by the embezzlers.
Representative Herbas said that in order to purchase these types of vehicles (which, using state money, is legally prohibited) they used funds provided by the IDH, approved by the Treasury Department, based on an official request presented by the Prefecture of Cochabamba at the end of 2006 with the false claim that the money would be used to purchase heavy equipment for Sedcam, something that was never done. In the end, the purchased vehicles never arrived at Sedcam, which is another reason for the Comptroller to repossess them.
The September 8 official report by the Comptroller General of the Republic, Osvaldo Gutierrez Ortiz, established clear evidence of Civil Responsibility "for the loss of State assets and goods through negligence and irresponsibility, through arbitrary appropriation and disposition of State patrimonial goods and through non-fulfillment of contracts."
Facing the embezzlers' attempt to neutralize the Comptroller through a frivolous civil suit, Gabriel Herbas announced that the Treasury Commission, together with the Treasury Department, will also begin legal action as "along with the economic civil damage that the Department suffered, there have been flagrant crimes of material and ideological falsification and fraud, and if the defrauded amounts are not returned, those responsible will have to pay with jail time, without a doubt," said the Cochabamban representative.
"Not only have they committed a flagrant embezzlement of funds, they have also worked to criminally deceive and surprise the good faith of the Treasury Department, stealing resources from the IDH with the lie that this money would go toward the purchase of heavy equipment for the Roads Service, and what they've bought are deluxe vehicles for the personal benefit of Reyes Villa and his friends," said Herbas.
Inefficiency and embezzlement
According to an investigation by Los Tiempos reporter Gisela Alcocer - who also is completing a lengthy summary of the case - the purchase of the 26 vehicles at such astronomical prices is a contrast to the broken-down vehicles that Prefecture employees use to travel to the rural areas of the Department, while the inactive collaborators of Reyes Villa ostentatiously drive through the city in their latest-model luxury Toyotas.
"On the other side of the coin" - states the investigative journalist - "the technicians that constantly travel to the provinces do so in cars that were manufactured between 1984 and 1999, that in many cases have outlived their use for the type of work they do.
Gisela Alcocer recounts that Reyes Villa justified the purchase of 26 luxury units because "the institution's automobiles were a risk because of how old they were."
"The distribution of the vehicles inside of the Prefecture is very unequal" - observed the journalist - "seven of the 26 new SUVs purchased for the institution were used to: transport the Prefect; by Citizens' Security to move their equipment; by the General Minister and for the top officials of the Ministry of Hydrocarbons and Productive Development, as well as one that was sent to the office in La Paz, also exclusively for the personal transport of the Prefect."
On the other hand, "the general minister of Planning, whose office is in charge of the Prefecture's works in rural areas, uses a motorcycle; in Rural Electricity there are pickups and jeeps that date from 1986 and 1988, as well, Dripad, which is the entity that brings aid to people suffering from natural disasters, transports its technicians in cars dating from 1986 and 1987."
In a report published on June 3, the Los Tiempos journalist wrote that "while the entities in charge of projects in the provinces, such as the Andean zone or the southern cone, don't even have vehicles assigned to them, centralized offices in the city of Cochabamba, such as Communications, Audits, Judicial, Tourism and Public Relations, use vehicles dating from 1997 and 2001."
Another revealing fact uncovered by the Los Tiempos investigation is the falsification of license plates of the fraudulently acquired official vehicles, and their use inside the city as private vehicles, some with bulletproof glass and armor, as confirmed by Datos & Analisis.
Wilson Garcia Merida is an independent journalist in Cochabamba, Bolivia, Director of the Servicio Informativo Datos & Analisis. His email is llactacracia@yahoo.com.
Scott Campbell is the editor of the blog http://angrywhitekid.blogs.com and a member of Tlaxcala, the network of translators for linguistic diversity. This translation may be reprinted as long as the content remains unaltered, and the source, author, translator and reviser are cited.
Comments