After three days of discussion, the congressional economic committees approved in the first debate the National Development Plan Bill ‘Colombia world power of life’.
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The articles highlight the approval of the creation of the Basic Income Program, the Zero Hunger Program and the creation of the National Council of Popular Economy.
Today the last most controversial articles were discussed: those of the creation of funds to manage money and those of extraordinary faculties.
Initially, the congressmen approved the articles that want to create the following funds: the account fund of the Ministry of Sports, the Fund “Colombia World Power of Life” as an autonomous patrimony, administered by the Ministry of Finance, and the Regional Fund for Territorial Pacts.
However, they eliminated 265, which creates the Fund for Equality and Equity (Fonigualdad) since it is not clear what the resources were going to be used for.
The National Development Plan 2022 – 2026 “Colombia World Power of Life”.
Then came the turn to vote on the articles of the extraordinary powers. The one that had the most discussion was 305, which claimed that President Gustavo Petro could directly create a business group of the electrical sector. This was finally removed.
It proposed that the Head of State have 6 months to create, merge, modify, spin off and suppress the following companies: Centrales Eléctricas del Cauca (Cedelca), Centrales Eléctricas de Nariño (Cedenar); Caquetá Electricity Plant (ElectroCaquetá); Huila Power Plant (ElectroHuila); Meta Power Plant (Emsa); Energy Company of the Archipelago of San Andrés, Providencia and Santa Catalina (EEDAS); Pacific Distribution Company (Dispac); Urrá Multipurpose Company (Urrá); Generator and Marketer of Caribbean Energy (Gedelca) and Energy Management (Gensa).
According to some congressmen, this article showed an evident centralization of the State. “They want to openly and blatantly strip 13 departments of Colombia of their territorial interests. This is not having 5 fingers of a front,” Senator Juan Felipe Lemos sentenced.
Later they discussed and approved article 306 (which gives extraordinary powers to develop the national forestry service).
Third day of the discussion of the National Development Plan.
National Planning
However, article 308 did not pass, with which it was intended to create a National Agency for Science, Technology and Innovation. According to representative Óscar Darío Pérez, it replaced the mission of the Ministry of Science. “One wonders what the ministry would do if this agency were created,” I examined.
Article 307 was also eliminated, which is the one that gave extraordinary powers to create an entity or body called the National Agency for Digital Security and Space Affairs.
Behind this article, according to Senator Miguel Uribe, the Government was going to be able to use technology to be able to intervene in our data solely under the pretext of digital security. “It is a super-powerful agency to manage data on the network. They would have the opportunity to intervene in our social accounts, telephones and WhatsApp. I do not agree that technology is used to intervene in our data,” he stated.
