The Anti-Corruption Office today denounced the former Secretary of Security Vicente Ventura Barreirowho was fired this week by Minister Patricia Bullrich for an alleged interference in the bidding for meals for inmates in federal prisons. The complaint is for the crime of negotiations incompatible with public service and was filed in the court of Daniel Rafecas.
According to an internal document to which he had access InfobaeVentura Barreiro summoned the head of the Federal Penitentiary Service, Fernando Martínez, to his office and asked him about the tenders for meals for inmates in federal prisons. At that meeting, on June 12, he reportedly told him, among other things, that “When the minister left, he was going to be the next Minister of Security”.
“He also told him that he was not a ‘policeman’s policeman’ and that he was interested in knowing how the bidding documents for food for federal prisons were going to be written. He also asked him about the readjustment of prices for the acquisitions already made, which are handled by the ‘legitimate payment’ system,” states a document prepared by the Ministry of Security with the signature of several officials.
“He had an attitude incompatible with a public official which is to ask the head of the Penitentiary Service for a document and give him a prepared document for some businessmen. It was not his area (…) “Bullrich said yesterday in dialogue with Eduardo Feinmann. In that same interview, the minister ruled out that the departure of Ventura Barreiro – close to the president of the PRO bloc in the Chamber of Deputies Cristian Ritondo – “had no connection with the internal PRO.”
The controversial document had been drawn up by the Undersecretariat of Penitentiary Affairs and sought to expand the possibility of obtaining the participation of the largest number of bidders and thus improve cost and service. “This tender for food services is considered an unprecedented process, since it breaks a monopoly of many years and opens participation to more than 300 companies, in contrast to the 15 that historically managed the service. This change seeks to promote competition and transparency in public administration,” said Bullrich when he announced the departure of his number two.
According to the testimony of the director of the SPF, Ventura Barreiro He actually got involved in the raw food specifications and made some modifications that benefited a specific company, which is not mentioned. “The modifications suggested through Ventura Barreiro were focused on the background of the companies, which were intended to have experience in penitentiary establishments; that the company had a manufacturing plant less than one hundred kilometers away from the prison unit; and requested that any offer made below ten percent (10%) of the witness price, which they called the “base price,” be rejected,” Martínez declared before the Ministry authorities in a meeting that took place last Saturday.
The head of the SPF also contributed the conversations on WhatsApp that he had had with the former Secretary of Security. “He accepted that it had been like that, he asked me for another chance, but in these matters there are no second chances,” Bullrich said about Ventura Barreiro.
The fate of the former Secretary of Security was sealed last Friday, when Daniel Barberis, General Director of Priority Affairs, called Bullrich’s Chief of Staff, Carlos Manfroni, and asked for an urgent meeting. That meeting took place the next day at the headquarters of the Ministry of Security, with the presence of secretaries and undersecretaries.
