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To Brigade Members and Senior Executives: Comptroller Reveals Conaf Paid Over $1 Billion in Overtime Between 2023 and 2024

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Days before the one-year anniversary of the mega-fire that devastated much of Valparaíso, Viña del Mar, and Quilpué, the Comptroller General of the Republic published the results of its audit of the National Forestry Corporation's (Conaf) response to the emergency, revealing multiple irregularities within the institution.

According to El Mercurio de Valparaíso, the report is a damning document that exposed million-dollar payments for unverified overtime to the corporation's executives and brigade members, direct contracts worth up to US$352,000 for helicopter services, and severe failures in Conaf's response to the February 2 mega-fire. These findings have already been forwarded to the Public Prosecutor's Office.

It is worth noting that the Comptroller's Office made its audit public this week, also stating that the agency failed to provide models of the fire's progression or promptly inform Senapred about the magnitude of the situation, which could have allowed for proper public alerts when the fires began.

"It was confirmed that Conaf did not conduct specific modeling for each of the sectors involved in the February 2024 fires, nor was there any record of the fire's projected spread, despite claims to the contrary," the oversight body stated.

Additionally, it noted that Conaf "did not communicate the necessary information to Senapred for the latter to declare alerts to the population and all municipal, regional, provincial, or national authorities, as required by law."

Regarding the irregularities exposed by the Comptroller's Office about Conaf's overtime system, the oversight document asserts that "deficiencies" and a "lack of control" over overtime were identified, as well as the "failure to issue timely administrative acts approving them."

In this regard, it argues that the above "enables excessive payments for overtime related to activities whose execution has not been verified."

Specifically, the Comptroller detailed that Conaf made overtime payments from January 2023 to March 2024 to 24 senior executives, totaling $222,962,269. Seven of these executives received payments exceeding $13 million during this period, amounting to $113,154,359. Additionally, the oversight body analyzed payments to brigade members and found that Conaf Valparaíso alone spent $854,831,601 on overtime for 476 brigade members.

This means that, adding the overtime payments to senior executives and brigade members, Conaf disbursed over one billion pesos ($1,077,793,870) in this category.

"This is a perverse system"

On this matter, Ricardo Heinsohn, president of the National Union of Conaf Professionals, stated that the Comptroller's report "confirms what we denounced" and deemed the payment of over $222 million in overtime to executives "truly unacceptable." He added that it reflects "a perverse system that incentivizes people to almost create fires to earn more money."

Consequently, Heinsohn demanded the intervention of the Prosecutor's Office: "Here, they must not only assign political responsibilities but also criminal ones to those in charge of Conaf." Meanwhile, agronomist Alejandro Zuleta, who served as regional director of Conaf Valparaíso for 44 days, claimed that a month and a half in the institution was enough to confirm the lack of transparency in financial management.

"When I took over as regional director of Conaf Valparaíso, I realized by the third or fourth day that the personnel in charge of fire response were unprepared. Those responsible for preventing and controlling forest fires in Valparaíso are not qualified, they handle substantial resources opaquely, and they are incapable of controlling or preventing fires," said Zuleta, who resigned in November 2023, months before the disaster.

"I requested changes, but I was not authorized to make them. That's why I resigned," he stated. Like Heinsohn, the former regional director of Conaf Valparaíso called for the Prosecutor's Office to intervene: "I hope the Public Ministry investigates as necessary, but those responsible, the masterminds, must be held accountable," he asserted.

He also denounced that, except for the departure of former regional director Leonardo Möder, Conaf's personnel remain the same as those who faced the 2024 fires: "The same people who burned Valparaíso last year are now making decisions."

"Corrective actions were implemented"

Following the Comptroller's report, Conaf issued a public statement noting that "in response to the identified weaknesses, corrective actions were implemented, allowing for better coordination with all emergency agencies."

They also stated that a "comprehensive restructuring" of the Forest Fire Protection Program is underway, "with strategic changes in leadership at both central and regional levels, especially in Valparaíso."

Lastly, Conaf emphasized its collaboration with the Public Prosecutor's Office, "which will determine responsibilities in emergency control management."

Source:Emol.com