The review found former executives of the telephone company responsible for the millionaire swindle. The cooperative indicates that they are still presenting their resignations and that the report is not the final one. Afcoop reminds to show the figures to members.
The figures are cold, hard, clear and above all revealing. Documentation to which EL DEBER had access reveals that the swindle in Cooperativa de Telecomunicaciones Santa Cruz R.L. (Cotas) occurred in 2019 - within the membership loyalty program 'Cotas en Cuotas' - reaches $us 14.5 million. It even determines that there is criminal liability of former senior executives of the institution.
The information in the first paragraph is based on data from an external audit conducted by a company hired by the cooperative. EL DEBER accessed the expertise that reviewed the commercial agreements for the supply of electronic equipment, signed in the 2017 and 2018 managements with the suppliers of 'Cotas en Cuotas'.
"The integrity of the operations related to Cotas R.L. equipment orders to suppliers, deliveries made with suppliers to members, users and/or beneficiaries of Cotas, supplier payments, equipment balances in the cooperative's warehouses, reconciliations and other documents related to the program were analyzed," states part of the auditing firm's report to Cotas.
The document is 45 pages long and was sent on March 12, 2020 to Cotas' directors by the company Asimco S.R.L. It is not known if that is the total losses, given that the operator hired another company to audit the development of the program between the years 2010 and 2016.
Background
In 2019, Cotas denounced that through this program, which sought to build loyalty among its members by making it easier for them to purchase electronic equipment on credit, a group of officials made fictitious requests, and then diverted and sold the devices on the black market, without them reaching the cooperative's members.
The program sought to generate profits from the sale of the equipment on credit by charging the cost to the members' invoices.
When the case came to light, a preliminary damage of US$ 7.7 million was calculated. The Public Prosecutor's Office then opened an ex officio proceeding, which was later joined by the cooperative. More than a dozen people were charged, including Cotas executives and private individuals. A date for the oral trial is awaited.
Results of the audit
The audit reviewed the contracts signed with eight suppliers, in three of them no irregularities were found, and the amounts and quantity of equipment were less than Bs 60,000. But it did detect economic damage in the operations with the other five.
The companies observed are Antelo Service Import Export, Boto SRL, Electrónica de Consumo Sure LTDA, Media Market SRL and Daher Importaciones, Exportaciones y Representaciones, with the latter Cotas had a process that culminated in a conciliation, which was even observed by the audit, for favoring former executives involved in the damage to the telephone company.
Between 2017 and 2018 the equipment suppliers delivered devices for a value of Bs 120.5 million ($US 17.31 million). The amount corresponds to fictitious and real requests.
Of that total, only Bs 13.7 ($us 2 million) went to cooperative members. While Bs 106.7 million (US$ 15.3 million) were diverted. The Attorney General's Office described this as a criminal association within the operator, made up of middle and senior executives.
The highest amounts were recorded in two contracts. The first one with Media Market to which Cotas delivered Bs 41.7 million (US$ 5.9 million). The company even demanded an additional Bs 1.5 million (US$ 215,517) from the cooperative.
The second was with Daher. Cotas paid Bs 29.3 million (US$ 4.2 million) to this supplier, but the company demanded an additional payment of Bs 22.03 million (US$ 3.1 million). The balance was reconciled, establishing that Cotas should pay Bs 18 million (US$ 2.6 million).
The report details that Antelo Service Import Export delivered products worth Bs 11.1 million - equivalent to US$ 1.5 million - but only Bs 2.4 million reached the partners. The rest was diverted. This supplier was paid Bs 7.9 million.
While in the contract with Boto SRL it was detected that items for Bs 4.4 million (US$ 632,183) were shipped, only Bs 1.04 million reached the users. In the operation, Cotas disbursed Bs 2.9 million (US$ 416,666).
The same anomalies were discovered with the operations with Electrónica de Consumo Sure Ltda., which delivered merchandise in the amount of Bs 9.1 million. Only Bs 446,316 reached the members, but the telecommunications cooperative paid Bs 6.5 to the firm.
The auditing company claims that the officials responsible for the program changed the way the equipment was delivered.
For example, a device could only be delivered through a request made by the member, user or beneficiary. The procedure was simple: the interested person went to the cooperative, asked for a voucher, chose the equipment of his preference and handed in his personal documents.
This system was changed by allowing the Marketing Director to make requests by e-mail, including in one order many devices.
The expert report notes that in order to approve the payment of the diverted units, an accounting adjustment was made, even though the data did not coincide with the reports on the characteristics of the devices, but with the value of the devices. The anomaly was not observed by any company filter.
In addition, there were disbursement authorization levels. For example, transactions up to US$ 5,000 were approved by the Economy and Finance Manager, the Management Director, the Accounting Director or the Treasury Deputy Director.
When they reached $US 10,000, they were authorized by the general manager, the manager of Economy and Finance, the manager of Administration or Human Resources, or the manager of Technological Innovation, with two joint or indistinct signatures.
And if they exceeded $US 10,000, the ones who ordered to pay were the president of Cotas (at that time Iván Uribe), the treasurer of the Board of Directors (at that time José Daniel Hurtado, current president of Cotas) and the General Manager, a position held by Saúl Antelo Torrico.
"The irregular actions of the officers and former officers of Cotas RL who participated in the operations and of the president and treasurer of the Board of Directors, as well as the general manager, who signed checks giving course to the irregular payments, were also responsible for the economic damage of Bs 101.3 million, equivalent to US$ 14.5 million," says the auditing firm.
Responsibilities
The technical expertise concludes that there are criminal liabilities of 11 former officers and senior executives of Cotas. This list even includes the current president of the Board of Directors, who was previously treasurer of the cooperative, José Daniel Hurtado.
Also on the list is Hubert Gil, former Marketing Director, Javier Vaca Díez, former Marketing Manager, Saúl Antelo, former General Manager, and the former President of the institution, Iván Uribe, among others.
According to the audit, "they carried out adulterated reconciliations and manipulated the company's computer systems to make the payment, cunningly accounting to hide accounting figures and signing the checks that gave rise to the irregular payment".
Cotas affirms that these people have not yet been released.
The importers are not left out. The five supplier companies "acted outside of what was established in the contracts signed with Cotas" within the program, contributing "to the economic damage exposed in the audit report".
The cooperative did not deny the content of the expertise and said that the reports of both audits (including the one from 2010-2016) were submitted to the Internal Audit Management of Cotas, which validated the information and then forwarded it to the Regulatory Authority in Cooperatives (Afcoop) for review and joint signing of the act of conformity, as provided for in the technical specifications of the regulatory body.
By the end of 2020, Afcoop was expected to return the reports and working papers. However, this did not happen due to another change of government at the national level, which implied the replacement of officials of the regulatory body", they indicated.
In a statement they add that on March 3 the reports, including the working papers, were sent to Cotas. "As appropriate, the Board of Directors has referred all this documentation to the Supervisory Board so that the work corresponding to the final stage of the process can be coordinated," they say.
Cotas adds that the corresponding disclosures must be made and, based on this, the independent auditing firms will formulate their final conclusions. And once this process has been completed, the partners will be informed. Regarding the criminal proceeding, they said that it is still ongoing and that a trial date is expected.
However, a letter sent by Afcoop to Cotas on February 22 of this year states that it has already returned the documentation. In addition, the letter also ordered the cooperative to disclose the results of the audit to its members, as required by law.
No comments:
Post a Comment