Colombia Opens a Fiscal Process Over Hidroituango Project

Colombia's General Comptroller's Office (GCO) opened a process against 28 defendants for failures in the planning and execution of the Ituango hydroelectric project (Hidroituango), which caused economic losses to the State after the collapse of one of its structures in 2018.

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Among the accused are Antioquia's former governor Sergio Fajardo and members of Hidroituango Board of Directors Federico Gutierrez and Anibal Gaviria, who is the current Antioquia governor.  

GCO made the accusations based on actions and omissions for not fulfilling all their responsibilities and for omitting their duty to take care of the work. In the first stage of this case, charges do not imply that the perpetrators are guilty.

As long as there is no ruling, the accused are not disqualified from continuing their public life nor is there a suspension of the contracts being executed with respect to Hidroituango.

If after the trial they are found guilty, they would enter a warning fiscal bulletin which will prevent them from being hired to work with the State, but also from aspiring to public office until they pay the value of the tax sentence.

An accelerator was added to Hidroituango's initial project that conceived the construction of a third tunnel to divert the Cauca River.

The tunnel collapsed on 28 April 2018 after an increase in the river's flow, generating a contingency and putting the stability of the entire facility on red alert.