New controversy breaks out in the Petro Government; More than 700 new contracts are uncovered in Colpensiones: “they are up to $20 million”

Luc Williams

A new scandal surrounds the government of President Gustavo Petro, after the senator from the Democratic Center denounced cost overruns in Colpensiones close to 106,000 million pesos, that would be given through two types of contracts.

To better present her complaint, the congresswoman spoke exclusively this Thursday, January 25, where she assured that the current national administration is using Colombians’ pension resources quite irresponsibly.

“I have always been concerned about public administration, because sometimes it is very good. But sometimes it is confused with politicking and here what we are seeing in Colpensiones, in the Petro Government, is really the quite irresponsible use of Colombians’ pension resources.”, he initially expressed.

Valencia, in the same way, took advantage of the dialogue with this medium to point out that the entity went from having 300 “missionary” contracts to 1,000 last year, which is up to 20 million pesos per month. Likewise, he indicated that the majority are for working from home.

“What are missionaries? They are the people you hire through temporary companies to make up for any absences you may have. Colpensiones is an entity with an extremely large payroll. Normally, there were 300 missionaries, but 2023 closed with 1,000 missionaries,” added the legislator.

Then he declared: “We do not see any substantive change in the entity, which would justify the hiring of 700 new missionaries. The serious thing is that they are contracts of 5, 15 and 20 million pesos, but they are not going to work in the offices, they are remote jobs. The question is whether what we are seeing is the famous jam to approve the reforms.”

Regarding the opposition leader, she indicated that this contract was worth 25,000 million pesos for Colpensiones and in 2023 she went on to tender it for 72,000 million pesos. However, they award it for 65,000 million pesos.

“Then Colpensiones comes and says: ‘Look, we saved 72 billion pesos, to 65 billion pesos’. So they try to say that they saved that. “The figure that was being suggested was so high that the proponents included less money, 65,000 million pesos,” Valencia explained.

The senator from the Democratic Center finally pointed out that the award of said contract was not carried out with “complete transparency”, given that what was required in the request documents was not met.

In this sense, Vicky insisted in Semana that she perceived that they are taking money from Colombians’ pensions to make contracts.

About LUC WILLIAMS

Luc's expertise lies in assisting students from a myriad of disciplines to refine and enhance their thesis work with clarity and impact. His methodical approach and the knack for simplifying complex information make him an invaluable ally for any thesis writer.