Ricardo Bonilla said that “the president was always aware of my actions and duties as a public official, and my resignation was on the table, pending only a date, and was agreed yesterday.”
Finance Minister Ricardo Bonilla has officially resigned from his position after President Gustavo Petro asked him to leave the portfolio. Bonilla's departure occurs in the midst of a scandal related to alleged irregularities in the National Unit for Disaster Risk Management (Ungrd), in which he is accused by his former advisor of directing contracts to congressmen in exchange for votes.
Bonilla took office as Finance Minister in May 2023, after having previously served as Secretary of Finance in Bogotá during the administration of Gustavo Petro as mayor. His resignation was announced through a letter sent to the president, in which the now former minister assured that he considers it necessary to step down from office to assume his legal defense as a citizen and prevent the investigation against him from affecting the Government's agenda.
In a message published hours after his resignation, Bonilla said: “Since I became Minister of Finance of the Republic of Colombia, the president had my resignation at his disposal. I never stuck to my position and I will not use it to defend myself from this confusing episode. (...) As I said in my resignation, I am leaving with my head held high, confident of convincing my investigators that I did not buy silence, nor votes from congressmen, nor indicative quotas, and much less did I commit crimes.”
Bonilla said in his statement that “ the president was always aware of my actions and duties as a public official , and my resignation was on the table, pending only a date, and was agreed yesterday.” He also said that his defense is based on truth and transparency, “as have been all the acts of my public and academic life,” he concluded.
The accusations against Bonilla
The case that led to the minister's resignation is related to an investigation into alleged irregularities in the awarding of contracts through the Ungrd. According to statements by María Alejandra Benavides, Bonilla's former advisor, the then minister was aware of a corruption scheme that involved the awarding of contracts to congressmen in exchange for votes to approve high-value loans.
Benavides' statement, leaked to the media, indicates that Bonilla was aware of the contacts between contractors and politicians who sought to benefit from the so-called "indicative quotas." However, the former minister has categorically denied these accusations and assures that the contracts in question did not materialize, nor were the $92 billion mentioned in the case disbursed.
Mauricio Pava, Bonilla's lawyer, said that the defense has gathered enough evidence to prove that his client was not involved in the corruption network. "For three months, with the approval of the Superior Court of Bogotá and the Supreme Court, we have gathered evidence that shows that the legal functions of the minister were not related to this criminal scheme. It is important that the country knows how much was stolen, how much was falsified and who lied to confuse public opinion," said Pava.
For his part, President Gustavo Petro publicly defended Bonilla, assuring that his resignation does not imply guilt. In a message published on X (formerly Twitter), Petro stated that the request for his resignation was an act to protect the Government from attacks that seek, according to him, to destabilize his administration.
Petro also emphasized that during his government, indicative quotas were not given to parliamentarians, a questionable practice that supposedly involved Ungrd resources. “The minister did not give indicative quotas to any parliamentarian, because I denounced them, before anyone else, and by the hundreds, and because I had ordered that they not be given from the first day of my government,” he said.
The case, which is being investigated by the Attorney General's Office and the Supreme Court of Justice, includes several congressmen who allegedly benefited from contracts awarded by the Ungrd. Among them are Wadith Manzur, Liliana Bitar, Juan Pablo Gallo, Julián Peinado, Juan Diego Muñoz and Karen Manrique, who have already been summoned by the Court's Investigation Chamber to give testimony, although some have refused to give statements.
The former director of Ungrd, Olmedo López, and his deputy director, Sneyder Pinilla, said that Bonilla had given instructions to favor certain legislators through contracts in municipalities such as Saravena (Arauca), Cotorra (Córdoba) and Carmen de Bolívar (Bolívar). Bonilla, for his part, has rejected these accusations and assured that the mentioned projects were in preliminary stages and that no resources were disbursed.
