Monday 9 December 2013

Colombian judiciary sacks Bogotá's mayor

The Inspector-General of Colombia Alejandro Ordoñez, the official empowered to discipline state officials, ordered dismissed on 9 December the mayor of Bogotá Gustavo Petro Urrego, for incompetence and the "chaos" he said the mayor provoked in December 2012 as he changed the city's trash collection system, Europa Press and Colombian media reported. Mr Petro was barred from holding office for 15 years, Caracol radio and Colprensa agency reported. The irregularities cited included the mayor's transfer of collection to the municipal firm Acueducto y Alcantarillado de Bogotá, which the Office of the Inspector-General (Procuraduría General de Colombia) stated lacked then sufficient experience and equipment for the job; the work was previously done by private firms. Radio Santa Fe observed this was the second time in recent years that the capital was left without a mayor; the state prosecution service dissmissed Samuel Moreno Rojas in May 2011 for irregularities in handing out public contracts. The Inspector-General told a press conference on 9 December that Mr Petro broke the law when he entrusted the municipal firm with duties he "knew" it could not implement, but also for restricting competition from private firms. That he said led to failure to collect 6-9,000 tonnes of trash from the capital's streets followed by "chaos" as the Municipality took makeshift measures to remedy the situation on 18-20 December, when the scheme began. The dismissal prompted the Minister of Justice Alfonso Gómez Méndez to say that the constitutional article allowing an unelected official to dismiss an elected one should be revised, Caracol radio reported.