A forensic audit carried out at he National Institute for the Promotion of Cooperatives (Instituto Nacional de Fomento Cooperativo-INFOCOOP) revealed that during the past 10 years this entity “lost” close to $80 million dollars due to the illegal handling of public funds destined to the financing of cooperatives. The audit was carried out in the finances from 2009 through 2016 by accounting firm KPMG.

The President made this information public through a press conference held yesterday in which they informed that the “leak” of funds had occurred in six ways: through credits granted in an irregular form (14 in total), transfers, trips, donations, contracts and investments. The total amount corresponds to a combination of missing funds, funds not used properly, resources that were never received, etc.

In total 14 credits were granted under irregular conditions which included cooperatives with loses or without economic activity, with no legal identification number, overvalued guarantees, conflicts of interests and the prevail of political criteria, among other anomalies.

The government took the decision of checking the situation of Infocoop on February 28, 2017 after the Comptroller General of the Republic had turned in a report in December of 2016 where it detailed some of the problems found.

On March 28, 2017 the District Attorney Office arrested Freddy Gonzalez Rojas, who directed Infocoop. Gonzales and another 5 people are suspects of having formed a network to take control of key positions within the entity with the purpose of using the millions given to the entity for their own advantage.

When the government intervened in 2017 a new board of directors was named, the same will remain in place until the next Government decides the future.