Colombia regulator fines Odebrecht, consortium customers $84.5 million

Adds response from Corficolombiana and Episol

BOGOTA, Dec 28 (Reuters) – Colombia’s commerce regulator has issued fines well worth a whole of 295.1 billion pesos ($84.5 million) in opposition to users of a consortium led by Brazilian building business Odebrecht ODBES.UL for breaking competitors guidelines, it explained on Monday.

The Superintendency of Marketplace and Commerce (SIC) fined Odebrecht 175.6 billion pesos for its part in devising and executing a strategy to restrict free levels of competition in the course of the award of a contract in 2010, it stated in a statement.

Corficolombiana CFV.CN was fined 55.6 billion pesos, whilst Episol – a subsidiary of Corficolombiana and Grupo Aval GAA.CN – was fined 33.8 billion pesos, the regulator added.

Appeals can be made towards the fines, the regulator reported.

Corficolombiana and Episol have not been found liable for the things to do remaining investigated, Corficolombiana explained in a assertion, adding that the providers will carry on to protect their legal posture.

Odebrecht was not promptly out there to remark.

Odebrecht has been at the middle of a Latin American graft scandal, acknowledging in 2016 that it bribed officials in a dozen nations.

In Colombia, the organization paid bribes truly worth $30 million in exchange for infrastructure contracts, investigations by the lawyer general’s office located.

Odebrecht, Corficolombiana and Episol utilised an “anticompetitive system” to assurance a contract was awarded to Concesionaria Ruta del Sol, the SIC reported.

The regulator fined Concesionaria Ruta del Sol – which is in liquidation – 221.5 million pesos, it added.

3 former Odebrecht administrators in Colombia and a previous Corficolombiana govt have been fined a full of 3.56 billion pesos, the Superintendency said, for possessing eased, permitted or tolerated the system to prohibit levels of competition.

Previous deputy Transportation Minister Gabriel Garcia was also fined for his involvement in the plan, but will not have to shell out the penalty following collaborating with investigators, the SIC included.

In December 2018, a Colombian court docket fined the Odebrecht-led consortium $250 million and banned it from authorities contracts for 10 several years.

($1 = 3,493.77 Colombian pesos)

(Reporting by Oliver Griffin and Nelson Bocanegra modifying by Barbara Lewis and Jonathan Oatis)

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