Tuesday, April 16, was a particularly crucial date for the particular interests of Asofondos, the union that brings together private pension funds, in the midst of the process of the Petro Government’s controversial pension reform.
Asofondos is in the eye of the hurricane, because, although it had vehemently opposed the Casa de Nariño project, it ended up giving in and agreeing to billion-dollar commissions.
That April 16, the former Minister of the Interior, Juan Fernando Cristo, put himself at the service of Asofondos. Cristo contacted a senator he completely trusted, Gustavo Moreno, elected with the support of En Marcha and the Centro Esperanza coalition.
As SEMANA was able to confirm with sources in Congress, Cristo sent Moreno a proposal (in Word format) so that the congressman could present it in the Senate plenary session in the middle of the pension reform process.
The message of Christ reached Senator Moreno through WhatsApp. The document, in Word format, as SEMANA discovered, was prepared directly by Asofondos, specifically by its legal vice president, Clara Elena Reales, as evidenced in the metadata.
However, that April 16, Moreno initially filed a proposal that established that the Colombian pension system migrated from commissions for flows to commissions for balances.
The senator, the next day, reversed himself. He withdrew said proposal and filed the new one that Christ gave him and that was prepared by Asofondos, and with which the private funds will keep 2.1 billion pesos, for administration fees, of the Colombians’ pensions.
The proposal was finally approved that April 17 in the plenary session of the Senate. In addition to the signature of Senator Gustavo Moreno, there are those of congressmen Guido Echeverry and Jairo Castellanos.
The benefit for Asofondos was reflected in this transitional article, copied verbatim from the document prepared by Asofondos that Cristo sent to Senator Moreno: “Transitory Paragraph. On the occasion of the temporary management of the resources of the affiliates who, as of the entry into force of this law, integrate the Contributory Pillar in their Average Premium Component, in accordance with the provisions of literal o) of article 19 of this law, The Pension Fund Management Companies will deduct a maximum of 0.7% of the total assets under administration as an administration fee until the time the comprehensive old-age pension is consolidated.”
Days later, between April 22 and 23, Senator Moreno began to receive criticism for the ‘monkey’ that favored Asofondos. Although he tried to request that the discussion of the transitional paragraph (included in article 23 of the reform) be reopened, this proposal was not echoed by the Petro Government, which finally achieved approval of the reform in the plenary session of the Senate.
In the Chamber, there was no debate and the text was accepted as is, which is why it will be sued in the Constitutional Court.
Until now, former minister Juan Fernando Cristo has remained silent, as has Senator Gustavo Moreno, as well as Santiago Montenegro, Daniel Wills and Clara Elena Reales, from Asofondos.
