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Probe targets alleged cash demand by contractor on Bogota metro
Prosecutors say a video shows a Colombian subcontractor handing over 60 million pesos as a condition to unlock invoices worth 1 billion to 1.2 billion pesos for March work.
Colombian prosecutors are investigating allegations that executives of a Chinese state-owned contractor involved in the Bogota metro demanded cash from a local subcontractor in exchange for releasing payments owed on the South America project, according to an investigation published by Semana.
The report says the allegations are tied to a 26-minute video showing the legal representative of a Colombian subcontractor handing 60 million pesos, about US$19,000, in cash to a commercial manager of China Harbour Engineering Company, also known as CHEC, in Bogota on April 18.
Semana’s investigation describes the video as showing the contractor passing a dark bag and telling the Chinese executive in English that each package contained 5 million pesos. It also says the executive spends about 10 minutes counting the banknotes and appears to write what looks like a receipt in a notebook.
The criminal complaint cited by the magazine says the payment was demanded as a condition for CHEC to approve invoices worth between 1 billion and 1.2 billion pesos, about US$320,000 to US$380,000, that the subcontractor Union Temporal Metrobuild said it was owed for work completed in March. The consortium building the line denies wrongdoing, saying the money was a retention payment agreed in a contractual dispute over the subcontractor’s work quality.