Colombia inspector-general suspends foreign minister for 3 months

BOGOTA – Colombia’s inspector-general on Jan 24 suspended Foreign Minister Alvaro Leyva from his role for three months over possible irregularities in the tender process for producing passports in the Andean country.

Mr Leyva in 2023 declared the bidding process void after just one company, Thomas Greg and Sons – which was already producing Colombian passports – tendered an offer.

The government took emergency steps to ensure passports were produced, allowing Thomas Greg amd Sons to continue printing them, while the authorities prepared for a new tender round.

“The foreign minister could have incurred two disciplinary offences, provisionally classified as very serious,” the inspector-general said in a statement.

The possible offences include declaring the bidding process void and declaring the process urgent, without grounds to do so, the statement said.

“The minister could have overstepped his duties.”

Colombia’s inspector-general, who is authorised to investigate public officials and remove them, suspended Mr Leyva over the accusations to avoid possible repeat offences by the minister who would oversee any new bidding process, it said.

Colombia’s Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

President Gustavo Petro told an audience in Cauca province that the suspension was a strategy to stop his government.

“It’s going to cost us, they’re going to suspend ministers here and there – we’ve lived it already,” Mr Petro said, referring to his time as mayor of Colombia’s capital Bogota.

Thomas Greg and Sons filed a lawsuit against Colombia’s government in 2023, seeking 117 billion pesos (S$39.6 million) for the suspension of bidding for the passport contract.

The company declined to comment. REUTERS