Faced with frequent accusations of alleged mismanagement in the awarding of the passport contract in Colombia, Luis Gilberto Murillo, former Minister of Foreign Affairs and today a presidential candidate, defended his management and emphasized the difficulties in which the current process finds itself, which would be linked to a series of negligence after his departure from office, in January 2025.
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The plan to renew the system emerged after a failed hiring process in 2023, which left the country without a supplier for the production of notebookswhich caused a million-dollar lawsuit against the State. Nearly $117,000 million were sought at the time by the firm Thomas Greg & Sons, in a claim that was dismissed after an arduous negotiation process; in a success that the former minister claimed.
This is what he expressed in dialogue with Infobae Colombia, The former official recalled that he sought international alternatives to resolve the crisis and signed a memorandum of understanding with Portugal in October 2024, with long-term implications. The above, with the premise that the Mint of that country, together with the National Printing Press, would assume the necessary production and technological transfer.
In fact, at the time, the presidential candidate delivered a document detailing the schedule and actions taken to launch a modernized system which, according to him, was not continued. And all because serious modifications were also made, since it was changed from a binational cooperation agreement, which is governed by international standards, to an inter-administrative agreement, with local application.
Added to this, said by Murillo, that there were differences between his successor, Laura Sarabia, and the Minister of the Interior, Armando Benedettiwhich caused irreversible delays to the plan: which added new aspects to the problems in the implementation of the new system. The same one that seeks, according to him, a modernized state model, without outsourcing, with total control in the issuance and management of passports.
And it is that The new strategy provided for a transition structured in three phases. The first stage, until October 2024, maintained a private operator; In the second, from October 2024 to August 2025, the Foreign Ministry would directly assume the collection and formalization of data for passports and visas, and the third, from September 2025, sought for the State to fully control this matter.
According to Murillo, All progress was recorded in official transition meetings with the Sarabia teambut it suspended the signing of the main contract with Portugal, without, in its opinion, a compelling justification. As a temporary alternative, the contract with Thomas Greg & Sons was extended, despite the objections of President Petro, who publicly reiterated that that company will not continue at the helm.
Luis Gilberto Murillo: I consider that, after my departure, The process was neglected and the established schedule was not met. We designed a model with very clear criteria: we sought objectivity in the selection of those in charge, to guarantee the proper management and protection of citizens’ information and to ensure the effective functioning of the system.
Furthermore, it was essential to promote plurality of bidders. The proposed scheme was mixed, supported by a Government-to-Government relationship. We invited several countries to present proposals, we analyzed them and formed a competent technical and institutional team, with the participation of the Attorney General’s Office, the Comptroller’s Office, the State Legal Defense Agency, the Presidency and Migration Colombia, which is in charge of quality control of the passports. We receive technical support from Oaci (International Civil Aviation Organization) and the UN.
The best proposal was that of Portugal, not only for the manufacture of passport books, but because it offered a long-term alliance between the printing presses of both governments. This alliance made it possible to modernize the Colombian printing press and access a cooperation package that strengthened the Foreign Ministry in scheduling, Migración Colombia in the quality laboratory, and the National Printing Office in the production of notebooks.
The idea was even to look for other markets and modernize the national infrastructure with Portuguese support.
Among the first results, We resolved problems in scheduling appointments. There were lines, corruption and paperwork for outsourcing with Millennium. The Foreign Ministry assumed this process, the software was updated—which had not been renewed since 2001—and the experience for citizens was improved.
And we implemented the online passport, something that had been created in the previous Government, but had not been implemented. We use the digital citizen folder to facilitate the processwhich meant a saving in intermediation of close to 40% and allowed the application of the law of free passports for vulnerable populations, in addition to reducing the general price of the document.
From the beginning, a robust legal and financial architecture was built. First, a memorandum of understanding was signed between the governments of Colombia and Portugal through the foreign ministries; then, a cooperation agreement governed by international law for the production of passports and the delivery of the cooperation package.
And complementary contracts were foreseen for the printing press and Migración Colombia. The model contemplated a margin of up to ten years for the National Printing Office to be ready and assume all production.
The delay in signing the definitive agreement, estimated at approximately one month, It was because Portugal was ready for Marchbut I was no longer in the Chancellery. It was necessary for the Foreign Ministry and the Ministry of the Interior to sign the agreement; However, disagreements between the ministries meant that the opportunity to sign it on time was lost.
With Thomas Greg & Sons, continuity of service had been achieved and they withdrew the lawsuit against the State. We saved a significant amount, I think it was more than 117,000 million pesosand the agreement that in September the Portuguese printing press would start producing the notebooks.
We had six months of transitionthat is, from when that agreement was signed with Portugal until Thomas Greg & Co delivered. Valuable time was lost there.
What I’m saying is that when you review what happened, there was a public dispute between these officials. I think that in June (2025), when those differences were finally overcome, The topic of passports really began to be talked about.
Upon my departure, everything was ready, and in January I even had a couple of calls with the Chancellor of Portugal to speed up the process. However, in the transition, the Foreign Ministry, in my opinion, did not give it the necessary priority to sign and continue the transition phase for Thomas Greg & Co to deliver in September. There were many issues at that time, such as the relationship with the United States, but when they reacted, it was already very late, in June or July.
They said they found inconsistencies, that there were things that didn’t add up, because they did not focus on understanding the model we had designedwhich is complex, with a financial, legal and institutional architecture. By not doing so, they wasted the required time. Then discussions and changes were generated, and a different model was designed; Although talks with Portugal continued, the legal and financial architecture they established does not correspond to what we planned.
Yes. If the model is changed and an international cooperation agreement is not followed under international law, but rather it is transformed into an inter-administrative one or a contract subject to other regulations.you enter under the regime of Law 80.
That makes a significant difference, because our approach allowed year-to-year appropriations, like other international cooperation, while the new model required future validity. These details make an important legal differenceand if they had reviewed the original scheme, they would have noticed that it was not the path we left designed.
I am not going to establish individual responsibilities because when I made my delivery everything was ready. The signing was supposed to take place in March and it did not happen. That impacted the entire process.
