11:43 AM
The vice president and minister of Equality, Francia Marquez, It is the focus of a new controversy. On Tuesday, the Cauca politician was called to testify before the Legal Commission for Women’s Equality of Congress on the progress of the Ministry of Equalitya portfolio whose creation was approved by the legislature in January 2023, but which so far has not shown concrete results of its management.
The equality portfolio, which aims to guarantee the inclusion and protection of women, ethnic peoples, the LGBTIQ+ community, migrants, people with disabilities, Among other population groups that have historically been violated, it has not executed even 1% of the budget that was approved for 2024, which amounts to 1.8 trillion pesos.
You may be interested in: With investigation underway in CNE, Petro will insist on a “little game” to get rid of the process
So far, according to information published in Infobaethat ministry has executed 0.36% of the budget assigned to it for this year. Regarding this situation, Márquez gave an explanation that, instead of calming the situation, multiplied the criticism.
“If we are not executing today it is not because we cannot, but because we have created an institution from scratch. This is not an easy task. In 100 years, a Ministry like the one we are creating had not been created here. It was 100 years ago, since the last century, and we arrived here with this task,” said the vice president.
According to his storythe execution of the budget has not been done because they are just finishing the procedures for creating the portfolio. According to her, after her appointment as minister (a position for which she does not receive a salary), had to obtain the RUT, establish it as an entity, obtain the Treasury accounts and then pay to have a page made on Public function with the aim of posting the resumes of the people who will join to work on the projects carried out by the ministry.
“All that paperwork took us two months. It is on August 12 that we appoint the first official, who is the general secretary of the Ministry. She begins to make the function manuals for the rest of the officials to appoint. It is not true that the Ministry has 700 newly appointed officials,” she said, clarifying that they are appointed as they regulate each of the functions within the portfolio.
Learn: “Neither the Government nor the president are complicit”: MinInterior Velasco went against Olmedo López
This portfolio has among its flagship projects promoting the System for Attention, Prevention, Monitoring and Follow-up of gender-based violence, which will have an investment of 20,000 million pesos and is expected to come into effect on June 1st.
Although the vice president defended herself by saying that the lack of execution of the budget has not been because she is lazy, but due to the difficulties of creating the portfolio from scratch, which is why she asserted that “do not ask me to go beyond what the law and The Constitution itself has defined how public administration is carried out.
“I am fulfilling my functions within the framework of what is established in the Colombian State of how institutions should function”, added the minister. However, it seems that in her statements she forgot to clarify a detail. Márquez said that in 100 years no ministries had been created in Colombia, something that is not true. Seven of the country’s current 19 ministries were created after the promulgation of the 1991 constitution.
The first was the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism, which was founded in 1991. Two years later, in 1993, the Ministry of the Environment was created. In 1997 the Ministry of Culture was created.
For its part, so far in the 21st century, four portfolios have been created. The first was the Ministry of Housing, which was founded in 2011. Eight years later, in 2019, the Ministry of Sports was founded, while in 2020 the Ministry of Science was born. The last, of course, is that of equality, which today has the vice president again at the center of a controversy.
Continue reading: Francia Márquez refers for the first time to the UNGRD scandal: “it is not possible that there are people in the Government who want to steal”
