Since the arrival of the Minister of Mines and Energy, Irene Vélez179 appointments have been made to its portfolio, ranging from technical to managerial positions. Only on January 5, 128 appointment resolutions were published, some of them ordinary and others in a trial period, as revealed on the Ministry’s website.
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The movements have generated a high degree of uncertainty in the sector, since the processes that were running have had to be restarted, so the delays have been marked.
However, with respect to the changes, a series of alerts have been generated for irregular movements, lawsuits by workers who were not paid work time and “job lists” generated from Congress.
Portafolio spoke with officials and former officials of the portfolio who narrated a series of events that raise doubts about organizational management within the Ministry.
One of the facts known by Portafolio is that some changes within the portfolio have been made with a “list” that has come from Congress. According to some testimonies, this would have been done as part of the negotiations of the motion of censure promoted against Vélez. In fact, the minister’s private secretary is a political token, they assured, that she entered with the aim of “straightening out” the Ministry after the motion.
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Offices of the Ministry of Mines and Energy.
For this reason, more people, including from technical areas, left the Ministry so that their positions could be given to people who were recommended by the legislative body.
Not only that. A number of Ministry workers expressed that they were informed that their contracts would be renewed; however, andThis did not happen and in some cases they were not paid for more than a month, despite the fact that they worked.
The case of the list extends to other modalities to handle the contracts. Another of the known complaints is that Minister Vélez has an adviser who is responsible for pointing out a list of “infiltrators” within the portfolioarguing that they come from the previous government.
One of the sources confirmed that there are between 4 and 5 advisers from the minister’s office who constantly review the server networks in order to map their interactions. Not only that, but this is a fundamental factor in hiring new servers. “They do not review the resume or the experience so much, but rather the ideology”said the source.
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for this too There has been a great movement, since a large number of positions have been changed. Those “infiltrators” are mainly officials of the previous government.
For this reason, an atmosphere of tension and constant vigilance by these officials has been created within the entity.
Regarding advisors, Portafolio also knew some unusual movements. He The minister’s office usually hires 3 advisersas well as the vice ministries.
However, with the arrival of the new administration, all the previous advisors were removed and those who entered, even if they were from other offices, came to work specifically with the minister.
This led to other dependencies They had fewer workers than required to perform their duties. “He did it without respecting the functional structure of the Ministry,” said a source. Officials who made connections with other changes of ministers pointed out that even in these situations there were not so many changes, with the aim of giving continuity to the processes that were coming. One of the complaints refers to the fact that these advisers are paid above the higher management positions, some of their salaries are well above even that of a vice minister, around $18 million.
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The high rotation has generated an important disconnection, assure the sources, since there is no strategy guiding the decisions. Similarly, some areas remain without workers, including the press, so Portafolio could not request an official statement.
Entrepreneurs and industry sources also stated that this is affecting the development of other activitiessince it is no longer known with whom the processes can be carried out and those who reach the positions are unaware of the follow-up they should carry out.
DANIELA MORALES SOLER
Portfolio Journalist
