Whether with Congress, some analysts or unions, and even with representatives of important sectors for the country's economy such as health, education and pensions; This Government has been characterized by having distant and very strong positions regarding the changes it seeks to make.
The postponement of last week's sessions in the Senate, the collapse of the health reform and the interventions of Supersalud to EPS like Sanitas, without taking into account the differences it has shown with the coffee union; They are part of the reality that the country is experiencing due to the distancing of the branches of power.
(Read: EPS accepted President Petro's invitation to a 100-hour permanent session).
This is why experts such as the former minister, José Antonio Ocampo, predecessor of the minister, Ricardo Bonilla, in the Treasury portfolio, raised a call not to break the bridges of dialogue and to avoid at all costs the train crashes that occur. They have become recurrent in recent weeks. In dialogue with Portafolio he explained his reasons.
What do you mean by crashes?
What I would like precisely is for the President (Petro) and the Government to dedicate themselves to executing government works, which is what the country needs. Not to make proposals that in the end are political and in a certain sense sometimes look more like a campaign than like optimal execution by the State.
You have to make the programs, even those that are in the Development Plan, the other programs that you want to execute and put aside all those political controversies that you are developing.
What are the controversies?
Initially I perceive four, and I have been talking about them for several days. The first has to do with that constitutional reform, which was originally understood to be a new Constitution, but later they are modifications to the Constitution. There is a procedure already established in current law.
The Constitution is important because it is the result of a great national agreement, which is how these changes are made and I do not see that the Government is in line to go down that path, which is very important.
(Also: How much remains to be recovered from what the Minhacienda mistakenly issued in payroll payments).
Are they profound changes?
As I constantly point out, many of the things that the President is suggesting and seeking are things that can already be done with government programs, without constitutional reforms. Suddenly there are one or two issues in what he proposes, which must lead to a specific constitutional reform, but that is done through the regular mechanisms established in the Constitution itself.
What other crashes are you worried about?
A couple of confrontations involving the private sector, which are the issue of road concessions. The President attacked the agency of future terms, but future terms are nothing other than the payment commitments that the Government makes when a private investor carries out infrastructure works. This refers to the elements of the cost of the work that will not be able to be financed with tolls.
And the other was all this controversy around the Regulatory Commissions, especially the energy one, which obviously involves many private investors who have been investing in electricity generation.
And what has happened to health?
That is the third controversy, the one that has occurred around health, the inability of the Government to reach an agreement on health reform with the Congress of the Republic and then all those unilateral actions that it is taking with some actors and legal procedures, such as with two of the largest EPSs, where not all the established steps were followed to end in the intervention.
(Also: The most recent changes on the board of the Bogotá Chamber of Commerce).
How to get back on track?
I think that this inevitably happens because the President puts his government team to govern and even makes those political agreements that he needs for many fields, and carry out certain works and even to make some reforms, through Congress, that may be necessary. .
How do you see the execution levels?
The budget is still left, I understand that the execution of those first months has also been very weak and there must be accelerated, because the execution is also fundamental for economic reactivation, because ultimately that is public investment, what is needed for reactivation.
What will happen if these clashes continue?
Well, attention will continue to be distracted from what is positive for a government, which is the execution of programs and strategies. If this continues, let's say from an economic point of view, it can generate economic uncertainty, and that uncertainty also has effects that can be negative. Everything must begin by showing a willingness to approach dialogue.
DANIEL HERNÁNDEZ NARANJO
Portfolio Journalist
