09:18 AM
Carlos Hernán Rodríguez He was 26 years old when he was measured make politics. Although in the beginning he seemed to lean toward academia, his thing was votes. Today with 55 years and a career made hard hand in hand with figures like Angelino Garzón or Juan Carlos Abadía, It could be said that he was not wrong to take that electoral path and that this task of adding and adding support continues to be given fluently.
Even though in the Congress division prevails, There are radically opposing sides and reaching agreements seems like a chimera, this Valluno lawyer got nine out of ten parliamentarianss – without distinction of party or political side – gave him the yes to take the reins of the Comptroller General for the second time.
“Is a historic vote in Congress to elect Comptroller General,” acknowledged the conservative senator Efraín Cepeda. It is not for less. Of 293 possible votes in the full Congress, Rodríguez won 265, even surpassing by five supports the result obtained in 2022 when – hand in hand with the same parties and with the decisive wink from the government of Gustavo Petro–, was elected head of the entity.
Now, 13 months after a ruling that removed him from the entity Due to irregularities by the Congressional board of directors at that time, Rodríguez returned to the Comptroller’s Office to manage an organization with 4,000 positions and a $1.4 billion budget under its own namein charge of nothing less than supervising public resources.
However, there are those who since Congress doubts that at any time Rodríguez has left the entitythen through the controller in charge, Carlos Mario Zuluaga –the second in command when Rodríguez’s election was annulled–, the former official would have continued pulling the strings in another’s body.
“He never stopped having control. Mr. Zuluaga is a vice comptroller who paid attention to him. Rodríguez never lost power in the Comptroller’s Office and also had the support of the Government. With that sum it is impossible not to win”claims Santander representative Cristian Avendaño (Alianza Verde), one of the few who deviated from Rodríguez’s election, in dialogue with this newspaper.
Appealing to the same formula that gave him returns in 2022 –approach each congressman and bet on retail pto obtain support through direct negotiation –, Rodríguez managed to ensure that from the Petrism even the opposition gave him a boost again to return. Because?
“Neither to the congressmen, nor to the Government It was convenient for them to lose the Comptroller’s Office. There they have friends and close people. Two things can happen: they do something persecution, as happened to Sergio Fajardo, with investigations based on reckless or unfounded facts. Or that they do not carry out investigations and slow down processes,” Avendaño says.
However, wanting to distance himself from the Government, in his speech before the plenary session of Congress, Rodríguez launched shots at the Executive: he talked about corruption; he lamented the bad economic moment; He criticized the low tax collection, and even spoke against the Executive’s budget cut of $20 billion, warning that The investment is at risk.
However, he still does not convince a minority that sees him as close to the interests of Petrism. According to representative Jennifer Pedraza (Dignidad) – another of those who departed from the unanimous support for Rodríguez –, from the traditional parties to the Historical Pact “They are comfortable with a blind, deaf and dumb Comptrollership,” and that is why they supported the comptroller.
He even denounced that, according to press reports, the president of the Senate, Iván Name, and Senator Efraín Cepeda –who was part of the scrutiny commission that verified the results of the election–, were “caught in clandestine meetings to protect the Comptroller’s Office from Carlos Hernán Rodríguez, favorite candidate of the traditional parties and the Historical Pact. “They don’t even hide.”
In the era of Carlos Mario Zuluaga as controller in charge The entity adopted decisions and issued pronouncements that raised eyebrows.
After the setback with the sinking of the health reform and while the Government intervened several EPS, A report was leaked from the Comptroller’s Office that ended giving gasoline to the Executive in his idea of taking control of these entities. There it was noted that 26 EPS owed $25 billion and 16 did not meet qualification standards. In the end it turned out that it was a preliminary report.
Then, in the midst of a scandal over alleged corruption in the Disaster Risk Management Unit (UNGRD), The Comptroller’s Office released a report in which it warned that the alleged irregularities in contracting in that entity During the last four years –covering the era of Iván Duque–, they committed $5 billion.
The document was known at a time when It was estimated that the bloodshed caused by the tanker scandal amounted to $380,000 million and served Petrism to insist that the anomalies are structural in the UNGRD and not only in this government.
Aside from the suspicions, the truth is that Rodríguez’s immediate task is to ratify its independence and, through solid investigations and processes, demonstrate their autonomy to put a magnifying glass on how the resources of all Colombians are managed, invested and distributed in the current Government. They remain two years to advance on that path.
From councilor to auditor general
Rodríguez began his career as a Palmira councilor in 1995 with the blessing of the Liberal Party. Then, he made the jump to the Valle Assembly in 2001 and was saved from being kidnapped along with the other deputies by the FARC because he was at a son’s medical appointment. Years later, under the Government of Angelino Garzón, he was secretary and also became close to the convicted former governor Juan Carlos Abadía. In 2008 he was comptroller of the Valley, then regional ombudsman and in 2019 he became auditor general of the Republic.
