Colombia’s Prosecutor General has been questioned over consulting contracts he allegedly signed with the government in 2012, with some saying this represents a conflict of interest, according to local media.
Two years ago, before he became Prosecutor General, Eduardo Montealegre signed consulting contracts with the Colombian government in which he would earn nearly $300 per hour to offer “verbal advice,” W Radio reported Tuesday.
Congressman Samuel Hoyos of ex-President Uribe’s right-wing Democratic Center party presented the documents, one of which is supposedly worth more than $600,000. Montealegre has widely regarded as loyal to President Santos and a political enemy of Uribe and his party.
Hoyos claimed that after having received more than half a million dollars from Santos’ government, he “can act almost as if under orders from the [President].” This, he says, “could represent a conflict of interest” and seems “very serious.”
Montealegre has come under fire before for his ties to the health insurance provider Saludcoop. He was the company’s legal adviser while it was committing fraud, for which the firm was subsequently convicted.
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