The government of Abelardo De La Espriella issued a statement to reassure the public after a ruling by the Administrative Court of Cundinamarca ordered the temporary suspension of the agreements supporting the so-called Petro passport model, implemented with the participation of the National Printing Office and the Casa de la Moneda of Portugal.
Although this is one of the opaque legacies of the previous government, the foreign minister Omar Bula Escobar assured that the priority will be to guarantee the continuity of passport issuance and avoid any impact on citizens who require the document, while attending to the Court’s requirements.
The Government assured that there are currently 410,000 passports available to meet demand and that the monthly consumption is approximately 150,000 documents.
However, other sectors involved in the matter are not so optimistic and told the Investigative Unit of EL TIEMPO that there will indeed be a risk of shortage.
Who personalizes?
And they go on to explain that scenario, which they describe as imminent.
Although the Foreign Ministry has 20 days to explain several key points of the agreement to the Court, and there is a stock of booklets sent from France and Portugal, the personalization process carried out by the National Printing Office is one of those halted by the precautionary measure within the popular action lawsuit filed by lawyer Nicolás Dupont.
“We have blank booklets and a substantive ruling pending by magistrate Moisés Mazabel,” explained a former official of the Petro government who participated in the agreement process.
He added that the already identified failures, which led the Attorney General’s Office to support the popular action, cannot be remedied. He refers to legal errors in the planning stage and budgetary uncertainty.
In fact, from the questions the magistrate asked to be answered, it is clear that the aim is to prove that the Printing Office and the Foreign Ministry were not ready to assume the new model and had to resort to subcontracting.
Indeed, the Court is asking for the location and identification of all production centers used for the manufacture of the booklets and the identification of all entities, contractors, subcontractors, or third parties involved in any of the stages of production, transport, storage, custody, personalization, distribution, and delivery of the booklets.
Additionally, the activities carried out directly by the National Printing Office Casa da Moeda of Portugal and those developed by third parties.
Manifest urgency II?
The legal situation of the agreement is such that some do not rule out that when the final ruling is known, the De La Espriella government, which inherited the problem, may be forced to propose a new manifest urgency — similar to those signed in the previous administration — to address the passport demand in the country without any interruption.
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In fact, although Petro ordered to remove the firm Thomas Greg from the business, he had to agree to extend the contract through the figure of manifest urgency to contract directly.
INVESTIGATIVE UNIT
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