A notification from the Attorney General’s Office has just arrived at the office of the Minister of Mines and Energy, Edwin Palma, related to the suspension of a key official from an entity linked to his portfolio.
It concerns Brayan Giraldo Ruiz, director of the Non-Conventional Energy and Efficient Energy Management Fund (Fenoge), an entity where a controversial solar panel contract with several alerts from the Attorney General’s Office is underway.
The suspension
In addition to the three-month suspension of Giraldo Ruiz, the First Delegate Attorney for State Contracting also ordered the opening of a disciplinary investigation against the official and ordered the collection of evidence.
According to the colleague network Blu Radio, the Attorney General’s decision is linked to the controversial and million-dollar process for the purchase of solar panels that EL TIEMPO has been denouncing and which is part of the presidential program package ‘Colombia Solar’, led by the Ministry of Mines, headed by Edwin Palma.
This newspaper had already revealed exclusively a letter from Fenoge’s legal deputy director, Camilo Iván Rincón, warning of fundamental irregularities that make the contract unfeasible, for more than 164.422 billion pesos.
And the control entity also warned of a possible nullity of the process, which will end up compromising several officials disciplinarily and criminally.
The arguments
As EL TIEMPO revealed, the document in which Giraldo is provisionally suspended states that a forensic analysis determined that one of the addenda of the solar panel purchase process was generated after the allowed deadline.
“The identified situation presents an even more worrying dimension, since, although the forensic analysis of the metadata proves that the document was generated on July 8, 2026 at 19:52:48, the text of addendum No. 3 is dated July 6, 2026, that is, two days before the actual creation date of the file and within the term in which the issuance of the act would have been legally timely,” the document reads.
It adds: “As can be seen, the entity and specifically its director Brayan Giraldo Ruíz,
drafted the rules to carry out the open invitation process no. 006 of 2026,
where he set the criteria that would regulate it and that were strictly binding for
the entity and for those interested in the selection process”.
Falsification and intent?
For the control entity, with his actions Mr. Giraldo Ruíz may have
committed the offenses contained in article 72 of the General Disciplinary Code,
specifically in numeral 9 regarding exceeding the functions conferred on him as the spending authorizer.
“This delegate finds that the investigated party may have committed
the conduct described in numeral 11 of article 72 of the General Disciplinary Code,
which states: “(…) By virtue of the principles of specialty and subsidiarity, it will constitute a very serious offense to objectively make a typical description established in the law as a punishable crime with intent, when committed by reason of, on the occasion of, or as a consequence of the function or position, or abusing it,” the Attorney General’s document reads.
(Consult all articles from EL TIEMPO’s Investigative Unit here)
In fact, there is talk of the possible commission of the crime of falsification by Giraldo Ruíz, due to the inconsistency between the date
shown in said contractual document (addendum) and the actual creation date, proven
through forensic analysis of its metadata, according to the technical report prepared by the
National Directorate of Special Investigations of the Attorney General’s Office.
The control entity has already notified the suspended director of Fenoge that if he wishes to be heard in a free and spontaneous statement, he should inform in writing to set the date and time
when the proceeding will take place.
INVESTIGATIVE UNIT
u.investigativa@eltiempo.com
@UinvestigativaET
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