'It won't continue': President Gustavo Petro on the passport contract with Thomas Greg & Sons

Just as the government is preparing to sign a new urgent order for Thomas Greg & Sons to continue issuing Colombian passports for 11 more months, given the impossibility of having the new passport booklet scheme ready, President Gustavo Petro reiterated that he no longer wants to see the company involved in the business .

" We will not continue with Thomas & Greg, because the tender they were conducting at the Foreign Ministry was fraudulent ," the head of state said this Tuesday during a new televised cabinet meeting.

However, the president's position directly conflicts with the Foreign Ministry's decision to keep Thomas on beyond August , the date his term was due to end. This is despite the signing of a memorandum of understanding between Colombia and Portugal for the Portuguese Mint to train and prepare the National Printing Office, whose capacity to manufacture the notebooks raises serious questions.

The situation has sparked a heated discussion between Foreign Minister Laura Sarabia and her predecessor, Luis Gilberto Murillo. Apparently, Sarabia's team failed to find the technical, financial, and legal soundness in the process undertaken by Murillo, who, in contrast, maintains that everything was ready for implementation.

Well, after several meetings with the Ministry of the Interior, National Planning, the Treasury, and the Printing Office, it was concluded that the most responsible thing to do to avoid problems with the service is to return to Thomas Greg .

The decision could cost Minister Sarabia dearly, as she was not present at Tuesday's Cabinet meeting. At the very least, there would be a reprimand from the President, and expectations are growing that this would generate renewed tension within the cabinet.

Although the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' decision regarding the manifest urgency of the situation became known today, President Petro did not address the actions of his current officials, but instead once again lashed out at his first foreign minister, Álvaro Leyva.

"The chancellor, by delaying his attention to me and suspending the bidding process, ended up in a mess that landed him out of office because of the Attorney General's Office, and now he wants to get revenge on me with his famous silly little letters, because I don't have a social or private life with Mr. Leyva," Petro commented.

This scandal began in September 2023, when the former chancellor of the National Government declared void, under Resolution 7485, the passport tender for nearly 600 billion pesos, because it would be directed to benefit the company Thomas Greg, which has maintained this business for 17 years.

According to Leyva, this halt was imposed to safeguard state resources, as everything was apparently arranged for the company to secure the lucrative contract. However, the Attorney General's Office believes this may have violated principles established in the law regarding economics, transparency, and accountability.

Subsequently, and to guarantee the issuance of this document for 12 months, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs declared it a manifest emergency under a resolution that was also subject to objections—Resolution 7541 of September 14.

And in October of last year, former Foreign Minister and Ambassador Luis Gilberto Murillo filed a second manifest emergency for 11 months. The idea was to use that time to transition to the new model with the Printing Press, but this has not been done.

Juan Pablo Penagos Ramirez