GRAFT SCANDAL OPENS WAY FOR REFORM QUEST

BOGOTA: Colombian President Andres Pastrana announced late on Thursday that
he intended to hold a referendum on reforming the nation's legislature,
which has been hit with allegations of corruption in recent weeks.

Mr Pastrana said his administration would present a draft law in Congress
next week, the prerequisite for holding a referendum that could take place
this year.

The scandal concerned the embezzlement of US$2.7 million (HK$21 million)
from an emergency fund. Funds were siphoned off in late December, when
legislators were on holiday, through 60 false service contracts. Among
among other items was a US$50,000-purchase of toilet paper.

Over the last week, the president of the House of Representatives, Armando
Pomarico, and its two vice-presidents, Octavio Carmona and Luis Guerra, all
resigned in connection with the scandal.

The referendum would be used to decide whether corrupt officials should be
blocked from returning to elected office or any public service, Mr Pastrana
said.

It would also gauge Colombian opinion on forming a ``smaller and more
specialised'' congress and on whether legislators' votes should be public
``so that they have to respond to voters for their actions''.

In Washington, the House of Representatives approved a US$13 billion
measure including funds for Colombia as well as for the United States
Defence Department, Colombia and recovery from Hurricane Floyd after
refusing to threaten European allies with a pullout of US peacekeepers from
Kosovo.

The bill included US$1.7 billion to help Colombia's hard-pressed government
battle drug traffickers and the rebels who were said to be protecting them.

Back in Colombia, a car-bomb exploded early on Thursday in the town of
Cachipay, some 40 kilometres from Bogota, killing two people and wounding
several others. The number of wounded was still being assessed, police said.

While no one took responsibility for the bomb, officials pointed out that
elements of the left-wing Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia operated
in the region. - Agencies