Colombia’s President Abelardo de la Espriella sacked the director of the Miracle Fund, which was to reconstruct the parts of Colombia destroyed by an earthquake in August, over excessive wages and hardly any progress.
De la Espriella decided to sack the director, befriended businessman Jaime Andres Uribe, after the opposition revealed he had given himself a COP39.4 million ($11.9 thousand) salary.
The labor cost of the 26 Miracle Fund staff was COP765.5 million ($231.2 thousand), revealed opposition Senator Kamelia Zuluaga (Pact0 Historico), who had filed an open information request.
The fund additionally estimated it needed an annual COP8.9 billion ($2.7 million) for the 130 people that were supposed to be hired.
The president responded on Twitter, claiming that “the salaries that have been announced for the Milagro Fund are NOT in line with my austerity policy. I DO NOT APPROVE THEM! I have ordered that this absurdity be reversed immediately.”
Hours later, De la Espriella said he accepted the resignation of Uribe and said that former Housing Minister Luis Felipe Henao would assume the leadership of the reconstruction effort.
Henao became controversial in 2020 when a photo appeared of him and late drug trafficker José Hernandez, a.k.a. “El Ñeñe,” who allegedly helped finance the campaign of former President Ivan Duque.
Henao’s wife, Luz Stella Murgas, was recently appointed director of business association ANDI.
The government’s response to the earthquake has been fiercely criticized as it has failed to effectively begin reconstruction efforts in western Colombia, where the 7.4M earthquake destroyed more than a 100,000 homes an much of the regional economy.
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