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Polygraphy will
be used initially to test executives in the 72 government
departments that have so far signed up to a transparency pact.
The executives will be tested before and after concluding
contracts for provision of goods and services to the government.
The Andean country's vice president, German Vargas Lleras, is
promoting the lie detector tests as a means of boosting investor
confidence as the government allocates contracts to upgrade the
national road network, estimated to cost more than $20 billion.
In one of Colombia's most shocking public corruption scandals of
the past decade, a family with links to a former mayor of the
capital, Bogota, made off with up to $1 billion after the
family's company won contracts it barely executed, claiming it
ran out of cash.
In 2014, Colombia was ranked 94th out of 174 countries for
severity of corruption in a listing compiled by Transparency
International.
(Reporting by Peter Murphy; Editing by Peter Galloway)
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