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Colombia's finance minister takes hit over water bonds

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Colombia's finance minister takes hit over water bonds

Colombian finance minister Alberto Carrasquilla is facing accusations of having enriched himself with bonds issued by municipalities seeking to fund water projects.

In Semana magazine, journalist Daniel Coronell said that Carrasquilla was part of a Panamanian company called Konfigura, which acted as an intermediary and advisor for municipalities that issued bonds between 2007 and 2014.

These operations, dubbed "water bonds," severely indebted 117 municipalities across the country. In February 2014 local development agency Findeter did a bond swap to aid them, as they had accumulated debts over 440bn pesos (US$143mn) at that point. In some cases, Findeter swapped up to 80% of the debt contracted by some municipalities through these bonds, according to the agency's website.

Carrasquilla's role, Coronell writes, was to make money for Konfigura by advising municipalities that participated in these operations. The bond issues became possible only due to a regulatory change Carrasquilla advocated in 2007, when he served as finance minister under former president Álvaro Uribe.

The article highlighted that shortly after Carrasquilla emerged as President Iván Duque's (pictured) finance minister on July 11 he sold his participation in Konfigura.

In response, the finance ministry issued a press release in which Carrasquilla denied illegal behavior or personal enrichment.

"Konfigura Capital was never a beneficiary... but only an advisor of the value issues. In that regard, Konfigura Capital never benefited from nor was affected by any interest rate," he wrote.

Meanwhile, senator Jorge Robledo told daily Caracol that the issue could lead to a motion against the minister.

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