{"code":"26336","sect":"El Salvador","sect_slug":"el-salvador","hits":"1597","link":"https:\/\/elfaro.net\/en\/202208\/el_salvador\/26336","link_edit":"","name":"Salvadoran AG Buried Evidence of Corruption in Covid-19 Food Contracts Worth $22.7 Million","slug":"salvadoran-ag-buried-evidence-of-corruption-in-covid-19-food-contracts-worth-22-7-million","info":"Prosecutors found evidence of nepotism and overcharging in contracts benefitting the biggest food contractor for the Bukele administration\u2019s signature pandemic aid program. The investigation was thwarted by Attorney General Rodolfo Delgado after he was illegally instated in May 2021.","mtag":"Corruption","noun":{"html":"\u003Cspan class='tint-text--dark' data_href='\/user\/profile\/jalvarado'\u003E Jimmy Alvarado\u003C\/span\u003E","data":{"jimmy-alvarado":{"sort":"jalvarado","slug":"jimmy-alvarado","path":"jimmy_alvarado","name":"Jimmy Alvarado","edge":"0","init":"0"}}},"view":"1597","pict":{"cms-image-000037917-jpg":{"feat":"0","sort":"37917","name":"cms-image-000037917.JPG","link":"https:\/\/elfaro.net\/images\/cms-image-000037917.JPG","path":"https:\/\/elfaro.net\/images\/cms-image-000037917.JPG","back":"","slug":"cms-image-000037917-jpg","text":"<p>Flow chart of evidence of corruption in the pandemic food relief program PES, drawn by the Special Anti-Mafia Group of the Attorney General's Office before its dissolution in 2021. Photo from the Cathedral file.<\/p>","capt":"\u003Cp\u003EFlow chart of evidence of corruption in the pandemic food relief program PES, drawn by the Special Anti-Mafia Group of the Attorney General's Office before its dissolution in 2021. Photo from the Cathedral file.\u003C\/p\u003E"},"cms-image-000037918-jpg":{"feat":"0","sort":"37918","name":"cms-image-000037918.JPG","link":"https:\/\/elfaro.net\/images\/cms-image-000037918.JPG","path":"https:\/\/elfaro.net\/images\/cms-image-000037918.JPG","back":"","slug":"cms-image-000037918-jpg","text":"<p>Fragment of a FinCEN intelligence report mentioning the Mexican company Comercializadora Columbia, a main purveyor of Salvadoran businessman Munir Bendeck's firm NSB, as having accepted wire transfers from Molinos San Juan, a company founde by the head of the Texis Cartel.<\/p>","capt":"\u003Cp\u003EFragment of a FinCEN intelligence report mentioning the Mexican company Comercializadora Columbia, a main purveyor of Salvadoran businessman Munir Bendeck's firm NSB, as having accepted wire transfers from Molinos San Juan, a company founde by the head of the Texis Cartel.\u003C\/p\u003E"},"cms-image-000037920-jpeg":{"feat":"1","sort":"37920","name":"cms-image-000037920.jpeg","link":"https:\/\/elfaro.net\/images\/cms-image-000037920.jpeg","path":"https:\/\/elfaro.net\/images\/cms-image-000037920.jpeg","back":"","slug":"cms-image-000037920-jpeg","text":"<p>Munir Bendeck, excandidato a la Alcald\u00eda de Antiguo Cuscatl\u00e1n por el FMLN y accionista de NSB, era investigado por la anterior gesti\u00f3n de la Fiscal\u00eda por su patrimonio y los negocios de su empresa con el Gobierno durante la pandemia. Foto: Redes sociales de Munir Bendeck.\u00a0<\/p>","capt":"\u003Cp\u003EMunir Bendeck, excandidato a la Alcald\u00eda de Antiguo Cuscatl\u00e1n por el FMLN y accionista de NSB, era investigado por la anterior gesti\u00f3n de la Fiscal\u00eda por su patrimonio y los negocios de su empresa con el Gobierno durante la pandemia. Foto: Redes sociales de Munir Bendeck.\u00a0\u003C\/p\u003E"}},"pict_main__sort":37920,"date":{"live":"2022\/08\/23"},"data_post_dateLive_YY":"2022","data_post_dateLive_MM":"08","data_post_dateLive_DD":"23","text":"\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u003Ca href=\"\/es\/202208\/el_salvador\/26334\/Principal-contratista-de-alimentos-del-Gobierno-era-investigado-en-el-caso-Catedral.htm\"\u003E\u003Cem\u003ELeer en espa\u00f1ol\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EIn May 2020, El Salvador's Attorney General\u2019s Office opened an investigation into $22.7 million in pandemic-relief food purchases made by the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (MAG) after finding evidence of favoritism and overcharging in the granting of government contracts. The beneficiary was the company Negocios y Servicios Burs\u00e1tiles (NSB), a company majority-owned by Salvadoran businessman Munir Miguel Bendeck who, in 2015, was briefly a mayoral candidate with the FMLN. In the first months of the pandemic, Bendeck\u2019s business became the largest provider of food bundles for the Bukele administration\u2019s emergency relief program.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EDocuments from the Attorney General's Office (FGR) obtained by El Faro confirm that Bendeck and several government officials were the subjects of a criminal investigation. A former prosecutor who worked the case and spoke to El Faro on condition of anonymity called Bendeck \u201ca key player\u201d in a sweeping corruption network that received preferential treatment and inflated or falsified contracts amid the government\u2019s pandemic response. Following the illegal removal of Attorney General Ra\u00fal Melara on May 1, 2021, ruling party Nuevas Ideas illegally instated Rodolfo Delgado in his place. The new attorney general then dissolved the team of prosecutors in charge of the case and closed the investigation.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EThe ministry was responsible for executing the government\u2019s Emergency Health Program (PES), aimed at delivering millions of food relief bundles to families across the country during the first months of the Covid-19 emergency. The PES was the Bukele administration\u2019s flagship relief program and played a major role in the resounding success of the president\u2019s party in the country\u2019s 2021 mayoral and congressional elections. The program received $236 million in government allocations and awarded direct contracts to 55 suppliers between March 23 and July 10, 2020. The FGR had already discovered other alleged acts of corruption linked to the PES as part of \u003Ca href=\"\/en\/202109\/el_salvador\/25736\/Top-Bukele-Official-Embezzled-$16-Million-in-Covid-19-Emergency-Food-Supplies.htm\"\u003EOperation Cathedral\u003C\/a\u003E.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003ECathedral investigations began in November 2019. Melara assigned the casework to a prosecutors\u2019 unit he created known as the Special Anti-Mafia Group (GEA), designed to investigate the \u003Ca href=\"\/en\/202108\/el_salvador\/25670\/Criminal-Investigation-Found-the-Bukele-Administration-Hid-Evidence-of-Negotiations-with-Gangs.htm\"\u003EBukele administration's secret negotiations with gangs\u003C\/a\u003E and other high-stakes corruption cases. In wiretaps and other surveillance conducted as part of Operation Cathedral, for example, the FGR found evidence that Bukele\u2019s Vice Minister of Justice and Bureau of Prisons director, Osiris Luna, had stolen and sold $1.6 million in PES food relief bundles intended for Salvadoran families in need. In December the U.S. Treasury \u003Ca href=\"\/en\/202112\/centroamerica\/25893\/Treasury-Dept-Salvadoran-Government-Pacted-with-MS-13.htm\"\u003Eblacklisted Luna and his mother\u003C\/a\u003E for their alleged roles in the scheme.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp\u003EOperation Cathedral exposed a complex network of corruption that, according to investigators, \u003Ca href=\"\/en\/202201\/el_salvador\/25948\/El-Salvador-Attorney-General-Raids-Offices-of-Anti-Corruption-Prosecutors.htm\"\u003Eresponded to Bukele\u2019s three brothers\u003C\/a\u003E Karim, Ibrajim, and Yusef. They asserted that the scheme also involved his cousin and head of Nuevas Ideas, Xavier Zablah; his chief of cabinet Carolina Recinos; a group of Venezuelan advisors; and several other government officials. Ex-prosecutor Germ\u00e1n Arriaza, who led the GEA until it was dissolved, \u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/americas\/exclusive-salvadoran-ex-prosecutor-says-government-quashed-probe-into-pact-with-2021-12-28\/\"\u003Etold Reuters\u003C\/a\u003E that before his exile he presented the investigation\u2019s findings to Delgado.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E \u003Cfigure class=\"pict pict_land pict_move_posc 0 cs_img cs_img--curr rule--ss_c\" data-shot=\"pict\" data-hint=\"pict\"\u003E \u003Cdiv class=\"pict__pobj text-overflow\"\u003E\u003Cimg src=https:\/\/elfaro.net\/get_img?ImageWidth=3300&ImageHeight=2039&ImageId=37917 class=\"pobj\" style=\"max-width: 100%\" rel=\"resizable\" alt=\"Flow chart of evidence of corruption in the pandemic food relief program PES, drawn by the Special Anti-Mafia Group of the Attorney General's Office before its dissolution in 2021. Photo from the Cathedral file.\" \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E \u003Cfigcaption class=\"pict__text cs_img_caption folk_content typo_buttons line--ss_s0c line--ss_s0c--auto block full-width text-overflow rule--ss_l relative\"\u003E \u003Cdiv class=\"__content block-inline full-width align-top tint-text--idle relative\"\u003E Flow chart of evidence of corruption in the pandemic food relief program PES, drawn by the Special Anti-Mafia Group of the Attorney General's Office before its dissolution in 2021. Photo from the Cathedral file. \u003Cdiv class=\"photographer text_italic rule--ss_l tint-text--idle\"\u003E \u003C\/div\u003E \u003C\/div\u003E \u003C\/figcaption\u003E \u003C\/figure\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp id=\"docs-internal-guid-626381f6-7fff-60bb-c478-60c242db72ea\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003EOf a dozen irregularities in the awarding of PES contracts collectively worth $71 million, three of the concessions were awarded to Bendeck\u2019s company, NSB: one for $9.5 million, the second for $10 million, and the third for $3.2 million.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EA former Cathedral prosecutor told El Faro that Bendeck became a suspect of the investigations following raids on the offices of the MAG on November 9, 2020. \u201cBendeck\u2019s company was handpicked by officials operating under the direction of the former Minister of Agriculture [Pablo Anliker],\u201d the source said. \u201c[Bendeck] benefited from his close relationships with officials, and because he\u2019s a trusted friend of two of President Bukele's brothers.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EIn July 2021, the State Department also placed Anliker, who by then had already left his position at the MAG, on their list of corrupt Central American officials, known as the \u003Ca href=\"\/en\/202107\/centroamerica\/25586\/State-Department-Accuses-Four-Senior-Bukele-Officials-of-Corruption.htm\"\u003EEngel List\u003C\/a\u003E, for \u201cmisappropriating public funds for his personal benefit.\u201d Anliker was not the only official the GEA had suspected of profiting from corrupt government contracts. \u201cWe were in the process of documenting that evidence,\u201d the former prosecutor told El Faro.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EEl Faro requested comment from the press offices of the Ministry of Agriculture and the Attorney General\u2019s Office and from President Bukele\u2019s press secretary Ernesto Sanabria. At publication time none of them had responded\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp id=\"docs-internal-guid-f6f2f194-7fff-f7e1-a4e7-75fa36338008\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003EIn a letter from its attorney, the NSB executive board asserted that the MAG sought out their services, and attributed the move to the fact that they had previously acquired contracts with the Ministry of Education. \u201cWe\u2019ve been purveyors of the school nutrition and health program since 2014,\u201d they wrote to El Faro. The public contracts portal Comprasal lists four contracts with the latter ministry starting in 2018: two for fortified beverages in 2018 and April 2019, totalling $412,000; and another two for raw sugar, in May and December 2019, totalling $518,000.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EThe company warned: \"We reserve the right to take any necessary legal action to protect the privacy and honor of NSB partners, shareholders, and personnel damaged in the future due to negligence.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ERecord Profits\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003ENSB\u2019s reported net value from the first year of the pandemic was 25 times greater than its reported value in 2019 \u2014an increase of 2,373 percent\u2014 according to data from El Salvador\u2019s Registry of Commerce. In 2019, the company had declared a net worth of $398,720. One year later, that number had skyrocketed to $9.8 million, thanks to lucrative new state contracts.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EIn the span of just two years, 2020 and 2021, NSB reported over $1.9 million in profits, while in the six-year period prior to the pandemic, from 2013 to 2019, the company\u2019s reported profits totalled $107,170, according to financial statements that NSB submitted to the registry. The company\u2019s contracts with MAG improved its credit rating, allowing the business to incur over $3 million in debt in 2020 \u2014 loans it then paid off in less than a year. It received one of them, worth $1 million, from the state-owned Banco Hipotecario. The NSB board insisted to El Faro that the debt was obtained \u201cin keeping with all legal and financial requirements.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EWhen the Attorney General\u2019s Office began looking into Bendeck, they noted a significant change in his standard of living, which \u201cwas out of keeping with his previous lifestyle\u201d and involved \u201cluxury real estate purchases in Miami,\u201d according to the former prosecutor who spoke with El Faro. Florida real estate records show that on September 9, 2021, he purchased a 2,188 square-foot apartment in the Paramount Miami Worldcenter building, an exclusive condo complex built in 2019 and featuring a panoramic view of the ocean and skyline. According to the Miami-Dade real estate registry, the apartment is worth $1,177,000.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EThe NSB executive board told El Faro that the personal finances of its partners are not within the purview of the business and that it has not paid dividends to shareholders for 2020 and 2021. \u201cAny acquisition by the partners is not directly related to NSB income,\u201d they wrote. When NSB was founded in 2013, Bendeck owned 90 percent of shares and his mother, Gracia Miguel, the remaining 10, per commercial records. Prosecutors found that they remained the only two shareholders through at least 2020.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EThe former Cathedral investigator says that Bendeck was crucial to the importation of food products purchased in Mexico for the PES program. Among NSB's purveyors for the food it sold to the Salvadoran government is the Brazilian company Tdx Trading, awarded a contract worth $10 million by the Salvadoran government to supply spaghetti for the PES. Mexican customs records show that another is the Mexican company Comercializadora Columbia, which in 2020 received $16 million in PES funds for parboiled rice and non-GMO white corn.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EEl Faro consulted financial reports included in the \u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/www.icij.org\/investigations\/fincen-files\/\"\u003EFinCEN Files\u003C\/a\u003E \u2014 a leak of documents from the U.S. Treasury\u2019s financial crimes bureau tasked with analyzing bank transactions and issuing alerts for suspicious or possibly illicit activity. In a 2016 report prepared in coordination with the DEA, FinCEN mentioned Comercializadora Columbia as a recipient of payments from Molinos San Juan, a Salvadoran company under investigation at the time for laundering money for Jos\u00e9 Ad\u00e1n Salazar \u2014 also known as Chepe Diablo, the head of the Texis Cartel. Molinos San Juan also received a MAG contract worth $2.9 million in April 2020 to provide food to the PES.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EMAG documents obtained by El Faro show a pattern of direct, no-bid contracts to specific companies, signed and endorsed by Anliker, without the ex-minister providing any explanation as to why no other suppliers were invited to submit offers. On April 7, 2021, Anliker resigned as minister and was appointed vice minister, a position he held for two months.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EBendeck was a candidate in the FMLN primaries for the 2015 elections for mayor of Antiguo Cuscatl\u00e1n, a municipality governed for decades by the Arena party, but withdrew from the race over internal party conflicts. His candidacy, according to a former member of the party\u2019s leadership, did not emerge from within the FMLN, but was orchestrated by the family of Nayib Bukele, then the party\u2019s candidate for San Salvador mayor.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EOne of Bendeck's campaign proposals was to conduct all purchases made by the mayor\u2019s office through a stock exchange mechanism known as Bolsa de Productos (BolPros). Two years earlier, in June 2013, Bendeck founded a company that operated as an intermediary on the BolPros exchange: NSB.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EIn 2017, El Salvador\u2019s financial oversight agency, the SSF, sanctioned NSB \u201490 percent of whose shares are owned by Bendeck\u2014 and revoked the company\u2019s BolPros permit. The reasons behind the sanction were kept confidential. Salvadoran commodities exchange law stipulates that a company will lose its permit to operate on the stock exchange for serious misconduct like fraudulent exchanges, providing misleading information, non-payment of market fees, regulatory non-compliance, or changing owners or shareholders without authorization.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003ENSB\u2019s purchase order records also indicate significant price unit differences in its MAG contracts. In the first concession, the government paid $10 for each food bundle; in the second, they paid around $25; and in the last, NSB charged $32.32 per bundle. When asked about this inconsistency, the former prosecutor told El Faro that the FGR had indeed found evidence of inflated pricing: \u201cWe suspect that the government purchased overpriced products from companies that did not have the capacity to provide these services.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EBefore the ouster of top prosecutor Melara, the Special Anti-Mafia Group had also been investigating the MAG for falsifying documents to justify its private contracting decisions.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EFast Track\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EOperation Cathedral records identify four MAG employees as suspects in the commission of two crimes: breach of duty and aggravated document falsification. Another employee, accused of failing to inspect the purchases, and was also investigated for breach of duty.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EEx-minister Anliker, along with the director of the Office of Government Purchases (OACI), Lorenzo Corpe\u00f1o, had also been investigated for breach of duty following indications that they had awarded preferential, no-bid contracts to NSB and seven other companies. \u201cAnliker instructed the OACI to invite both natural and juridical persons to participate directly, without conducting an open bidding process,\u201d documents from the Attorney General\u2019s Office read.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EAccording to the findings of Cathedral, in two contracts from May 2020 \u2014one for $9.5 million and the other for $3.2 million\u2014 MAG administrators \u201cinserted false data into the contracts\u2019 technical records,\u201d so that the offer from NSB registered in the official record was different than the amount the government actually received.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ciframe src=\"https:\/\/drive.google.com\/file\/d\/1CpTuhA7cPH0Al1thSsHvZ37MWPXkMP0k\/preview\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" style=\"display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;\"\u003E\u003C\/iframe\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp id=\"docs-internal-guid-d18855af-7fff-e586-f2c3-89f9acf858fa\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003EIn one contract, NSB reported to the ministry that it was capable of delivering 750,000 food bundles, but in order to justify the awarding of the contract, MAG administrators stated that the company could deliver 950,000. Prosecutors also note that while NSB itself failed to describe the details of products offered, MAG administrators recorded claims that each bundle purchased would contain \u201c2 liters of milk, 2 pounds of white rice, 2 cans of sardines, 2 packs of refried beans, 2 cans of tuna, 1 tub of margarine, 1 package of XL Best cookies and one packet of Pinito powdered milk.\u201d.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EMAG administrators also failed to keep a detailed record of products actually received from NSB. The Attorney General's Office concluded that the company failed to supply much of the contractually stipulated food: \u201cThey never delivered the 1 kilogram packages of pasta, the Shaka Lakamilk cartons, or the fruit drinks.\u201d the FGR report reads. \u201cInstead, they provided four cans of sardines, without specifying any brand or other product details.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EAccording to prosecutors, in the third contract, \u201cadministrators failed to detail the products received, simply describing them as \u2018food bundles\u2019.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003ENSB denies any knowledge of a criminal investigation into their business practices and asserted to El Faro that, in a special audit into the Ministry of Agriculture\u2019s food relief program conducted by the Court of Accounts, \u201cthere was no finding related to NSB, indicating that there were no anomalies in the contracts that our business signed with the MAG.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EIn March 2020, the Ministry of Agriculture classified all information related to PES purchases as state secrets under the argument that the program was undergoing a Court of Accounts audit. Investigators reported irregularities in PES government spending including purchases of food that did not undergo sanitary inspection and the importation of food unfit for consumption, which was subsequently destroyed in warehouses operated by other government agencies.\u00a0\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003ETo this day, the Ministry of Agriculture has not released any purchase records. In the audit report, investigators redacted the names of businesses and people suspected of corruption.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp style=\"text-align: right;\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u003Cem\u003E*Translated by Max Granger\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E"}