Colombia: Cartel of Army food suppliers detected

Colombia’s Superintendence of Industry and Commerce (SIC) issued a statement of objections against seven companies and eleven individuals over corporate collusion to manipulate the prices of food rations acquired through the Mercantile Exchange to supply the country’s Military Forces.

The regulator believes that between 2011 and 2018, “permanently and uninterrupted in at least 10 processes, the companies were awarded contracts with an official budget of more than 47 billion pesos,” said the director of the agency, Pablo Felipe Robledo, through a press conference.

The companies involved are Industrias Alimentos y Catering, La Huerta de Oriente, Iberoamericana de Alimentos y Servicios, Productora y Distribuidora de Lacteos y Alimentos, and Inversiones Baalbek. If found responsible for these behaviors, the companies would have to pay penalties of up to 100 thousand Minimum Legal Monthly Wages (Smmlv), that is, 78.1 million pesos (USD $ 27,131 approximately). There are no public officials indicted in the process so far.
Full Content: El Colombiano

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