Chilean Air Force allegedly spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on tourist trips during pandemic

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The Chilean Air Force (FACH) is the focus of a new controversy after it was disclosed that it had paid tens of thousands of dollars to a travel agency during the pandemic.

The private party in the case is the company Turismo Cocha S.A., investigated for corruption in the past. The information was published by the Chilean media Interferencia, and reveals that since July 2020 the Logistic Command of the Chilean Air Force sent the agency around 311 purchase orders worth almost US$250,000.

Some 161 of these orders are said to have been placed during the first four months of 2021. They have an estimated value of US$56,292 and were conducted under the framework agreement modality for the acquisition of services by the State.

The slump in air traffic in Chile, caused by the confinement regulations due to the pandemic, led to a drop of close to 90% in operators’ travel sales.

When asked about the relationship between both organizations during this last period, neither FACH nor Turismo Cocha explained the administrative decision.

Other suspicions related to Turismo Cocha S.A.

Self-proclaimed the “largest travel agency in Chile”, its origin dates back to 1947, when it was founded under the initiative of businessman Mario Fuenzalida Kessler. Before the pandemic, it employed 600 staff and had more than 20 offices throughout the country.

However, it is not the first time that it has emerged in the media for its commercial relations with the Armed Forces or other government agencies. The company has been named more than once in investigations on potential irregularities.

In 2018, for example, Judge Romy Rutherford seized emails to investigate a possible “fraud system” by high-ranking officials of the Chilean Army, who used their service commissions for pleasure trips to Orlando, Miami, Los Angeles and Punta Cana. Among the tourism agencies mentioned in this investigation was Turismo Cocha.

On 2020, the Comptroller General’s Office also mentioned the company in an administrative summary following the detection of irregularities in the delivery of funds for travel and “special assignments” to officials of the Chilean Air Force between January 2017 and December 2018.

The Comptroller’s Office concluded in this case that there were daily allowances worth over US$86,000 to uniformed officers who participated in commissions abroad and who “stayed overnight in the plane, or their stay in the commission was less than the days initially established.” In addition, it was established that more than US$31,000 was paid as allowance to officers who participated in trips abroad where the stay and meals were paid by the host country.

On the other hand, in 2018 the Comptroller General of the Republic also mentioned the company Cocha, after it was detected that the Army made undue payments worth US$569,232 for travel, transfers and daily allowances in 3 study tours for officers between 2014 and 2016 in Europe.

Turismo Cocha was also qualified in the press for being one of the 4 “preferred” agencies of the Chilean Foreign Ministry for trips abroad in 2020. Of the 919 flight purchase orders placed by the Foreign Ministry between October 2019 and June 2020, Cocha would have obtained 57 orders, which translated into US$5,832 in revenue for the company.

Source: Infobae