Versión Español
EspañolA complaint has been filed against Peru’s Comptroller Edgar Alarcón after it was discovered he participated in the purchase and sale of cars when he was Vice Comptroller without having declared any of those transactions.
According to a recent audit, Alarcon and his sons bought more than 90 vehicles, including Audi, BMW and Jeep brands, and then sold many of them. They also acquired nine other cars valuing US $182,550.
Alarcón said he did not include the extra income on his affidavits because it was a “negligible” amount that would have easily been considered a running expense.
However, the Comptroller is prohibited from participating in any “lucrative activity” on behalf of the deputy comptroller, prosecutors said, which means there is enough cause to open an investigation.
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“Alarcón participated in lucrative activity, even though he says he earned only a little,” lawyer Vladimir Padilla told Peru’s El Comercio. “The fact that he (carried out these transactions) through his children also seems to indicate that he knew that he was prevented from doing so due to his position as vice-comptroller.”
“We have to see if there is an equity imbalance with regard to the income that he had in his position as vice-comptroller,” he said. “A prosecutor must take action in this case and ask that both the comptroller and his son prove where they obtained the funds,” Mario Amoretti, also a lawyer, said.
If the comptroller’s spending do not coincide with his income, he would be facing illicit enrichment charges that could result in five to 10 years in prison or money laundering charges, which range from six to 12 years of prison time.
Peru’s Anti-Corruption Prosecutor has already opened a different investigation on Alarcón related to alleged payment irregularities to a female employee.
Marcela Emilia Mejia, a former employee at the Treasury Department in the Comptroller General’s Office, relinquished her duties in 2010 and was paid an irregular US $38,338 in addition to US $30,188 for transportation and daily sustenance costs despite her salary being only US $1,011.
The comptroller claimed that there was a miscalculation in the audit and said that in “no way” will he resign from his position.
“I am not going to resign and I submit to the investigations as Congress considers convenient. It is clear to me that I have not committed any irregular act,” he said.
Sources: El Comercio; Diario Correo; La República.
