The Minister of Security, Patricia Bullichappointed Alejandra Monteoliva as Secretary of Security in replacement of Vicente Ventura Barreiro, whom he displaced for having tried to “interfere” in a bidding process for food services for the Federal Penitentiary Service. Furthermore, for this reason, he reported his former number two to the Anti-Corruption Office (OA).
Alejandra Monteoliva, who will thus become number two in the portfolio led by Bullrich, She served as Minister of Security of Córdobafrom September to December 2013, during the government of Juan Manuel de la Sotawhen he faced the barracks of the provincial police
Between 2015 and 2020 Monteoliva held the positions of National Director of Criminal Information Management and Director of Operations of the Federal Forces.
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Patricia Bullrich fired a key official in the Ministry of Security and reported him to the Anti-Corruption Office
Ventura Barreiro was dismissed “for having tried to interfere in a bidding process for food services for the Federal Penitentiary Service,” according to what Minister Bullrich published on social networks.
Along these lines, the national government official stated that made a presentation to the Anti-Corruption Office in charge of Alejandro Melik. “Also, I made the corresponding complaint to the Anti-Corruption Office to intervene,” said Bullrich.
And I add: “This food service tender is an unprecedented process because it breaks a monopoly that has existed for many years. and allows more than 300 companies to participate, when historically a group of only 15 had been participating.”
Barreiro was the one who supported Bullrich at the head of the Ministry and, before landing in the Executive, he had gone through the administration of the former Buenos Aires governor and current national deputy, María Eugenia Vidal. During Vidal’s administration he held the position of Undersecretary of Planning, Management and Evaluation of the Ministry of Security of the province of Buenos Airesfrom where Cristian Ritondo supported.
He was also part of Ritondo’s own campaign to the Buenos Aires governorate, which the current legislator later declined to join the Bullrich team.
The complaint against Ventura Barreiro
According to the complaint to which he agreed InfobaeVentura Barreiro asked authorities of the Federal Penitentiary Service, managed by Fernando Martínez“for the tenders for meals for the inmates of federal prisons,” and expressed in the alleged dialogue that “When the minister left, he was going to be the next Minister of Security”.
“He also told him that He was not a ‘cop’s cop’ and that he was interested in knowing how the bidding documents for meals for federal prisons were going to be written. He also asked him about the readjustment of prices for acquisitions already made, which are handled by the ‘legitimate payment’ system. He added that behind the companies hoping to participate was [el exministro del Interior alfonsinista, Enrique] ‘Coti’ Nosiglia and his peopleand that companies always manage by putting money into making things work and that this is a common practice,” the text states.
“The deponent states that he responded that he did not need anything, that he had insisted a lot that the appointment of his own position be ad honorem because he knew that ‘this scourge of cartelized companies’ was a long-established phenomenon and that he wanted to eradicate it,” the complaint adds.
In response, according to the brief, Ventura Barreiro told Martínez that “anyway, companies always put moneyto which the deponent reiterated that he did not need anything and that the one who really needs things is the Penitentiary Service, something that as Secretary of Security he had to know.”
“The speaker added that, since he was, He told companies not to put more money anywhere. The Secretary of Security then asked him to give him the name of a lawyer he trusted so that he could settle with the companies, to which the protester told him that he does not have lawyers, that he does not deal with lawyers. At the insistence of Dr. Ventura Barreiro, the declarant continued to refuse and the Secretary of Security asked him to send him a list of the tenders, as they are going to come out,” he continues.
Patricia Bullrich asked her number two to resign and denounced him for corruption
However, the declarant maintained that “he did not send him the specifications and, that same day, in the afternoon, Ventura Barreiro insisted with the request, to which the declarant gave him a contract document for raw foods, despite the fact that he “What he asked for were the sheets of cooked food.” Given this situation, two hours later the former secretary “He sent him that same document with corrections and additions that he suggested making”.
In this way, “the declarant sent the two files to the technical area, headed by the General Director of Administration, Prefect Jorge Quintraman, in order to examine what the Secretary of Security requested. Two or three days later he received the technical return with the comparison of both documents.”
In this sense, the complaint notifies that the required modifications coincided with “the usual specifications that were precisely being changed in order to increase the participation of the companies.” For this reason, the declarant warned that said document “it necessarily had to be written by a companysince in two hours those observations, which coincide with the previous documents, could not have been made.”
According to the complaint, the changes suggested through Ventura Barreiro They were focused on the companies’ backgrounds“which were intended to have experience in penitentiary establishments; that the company had a manufacturing plant less than one hundred kilometers away from the penitentiary unit; and requested that any offer made below ten percent be rejected (10%) of the witness price, which they called ‘base price.'”
Following that, Martínez declared that he tried to investigate to find out who was behind all that movement“in order to inform superiority.” In that sense, on June 13, he received the Director General of Priority Affairs, Daniel Barberiswho had been tasked by the Head of the Advisory Cabinet Unit to find out what was happening to the prisons due to late payments for food.
“During that visit, Barberis asked him what was wrong with the food and if he knew Maximiliano Rima. The deponent told him no, but that coincidentally the day before the Secretary of Security had also asked him about the issue of meals and told him everything that had happened at the meeting. After some days, Ventura Barreiro spoke again with the declarant via WhatsApp to ask what had happened to the corrected statement.”, explains the text.
They cut the budget for access to Justice and expand it in prisons
In response, Martínez explained that “the document had come out exactly as it had been drafted by the Undersecretary of Penitentiary Affairs, following the guidelines of transparency and broad participation and competition that the Minister had requested, to which Dr. Ventura Barreiro responded: ‘What a mess!‘, and cut off.”
“Finally, on June 21, Mr. Daniel Barberis telephoned the Chief of Staff Dr. Manfroni because I had to tell him, together with the declarant, a serious incident related to prisons. An hour later they met, they told him what had happened and at that moment, Dr. Manfroni called, in front of those present, Dr. Julian Curi, Undersecretary of Penitentiary Affairs and immediately afterwards to the Minister requesting a meeting for the appointed officials. After that, Dr. Julián Curi summoned the complainant, who came to his study in order to relate these same events,” the complaint concludes.
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