The analyzes on the National Development Plan 2022-2026 that the Petro government filed on Monday and that will be under discussion until next May 7 have not been long in coming.
The document, which consists of 166 pages with 300 articles and a base of 321 pages, proposes important changes compared to what is available today in different sectors.
(You can also read: The keys to the Petro Government’s road map and the questions it raises)
Some of them have already been announced, such as the case of health resource management, a matter in which the EPS is relegated in the reform project of the sector that is being developed, or the changes in the structure of the Police.
Others, however, have caused surprise. Among them, the creation of a universal income registry that would make everyone declare income stands out, although this does not mean that everyone is going to pay taxes.
There are also questions about the cadastral appraisal of all the properties in the country, which will be adjusted in 2023, and concerns about the extraordinary powers that the President will have for a period of six months.
In addition, the four-year road map indicates the creation of a new truth commission. And in environmental matters, the Government would sign concessions with peasant families for 30 renewable years for the administration of forest reserves. Even the mayoress of Bogotá, Claudia López, called it «unusual» that the Executive did not include the Bogotá metro as a strategic project.
EL TIEMPO compiled some of the most challenging issues that cause a romp in different areas.
A new truth commission and changes in the structure of the National Police
In terms of justice, the articles of the Development Plan propose creating a «non-judicial mechanism to contribute to the truth and historical memory», with functions that would be similar to those of the Truth Commission created in the peace agreement with the extinct FARC.
It also has a new architecture of the Police for their transfer from the Ministry of Defense so that it is in the hands of a civil body and empowers President Gustavo Petro for six months to regulate the special conditions of imprisonment for members of indigenous peoples and communities in accordance with the text protocolized in a prior consultation.
Extraordinary powers are also available for the President to regulate «the alternative uses of the coca plant and cannabis”, as well as the definition of the medicinal, therapeutic and scientific purposes of psychoactive substances.
The plan seeks to create an instance of articulation between the Government and the Special Jurisdiction for Peace to facilitate compliance with the sanctions that it provides and creates the National System for the Search for Persons reported Disappeared in the context and due to the conflict, including the victims of forced disappearance.
Special actions for land titling and formulation of a new anti-drug policy
In line with what President Gustavo Petro has stated since he began his term, the Plan includes in its article 154 the adoption of a «new national drug policy», with a projection of ten years and a «fair and responsible» regulation. .
Nothing is mentioned about the changes to the extradition mechanisms.
On the other hand, paragraph 3 of article 42 establishes the promotion of a «special action for titling of possession» for those who, being subject to social ordering of rural property, «possess in a material, public, peaceful and
uninterrupted, for three years, a privately owned rural property”.
It clarifies that this will not proceed in cases in which there is dispossession due to the armed conflict, unless it is in favor of the victim claiming land restitution. The document also proposes an «improvement» for state purchases.
For this, it indicates that the entities «may contract directly through a scheme or modality of Public-Popular Associations with units of the popular economy, communal, social or community action organizations or other forms of social organization, communities and ethnic groups».
The Government of Gustavo Petro is presenting in the Congress of the Republic the bill of the National Development Plan 2022-2026.
Cesar Melgarejo/El Tiempo
Creation of the Universal Income Registry
The Plan proposes that all people, regardless of their income, declare income (which does not mean paying). This information will make it possible to createthe Universal Income Registry (RUI)administered by the National Planning Department, with the purpose of determining the targeting of subsidies, programs, policies, plans, projects and services of the social offer”, according to article 55.
On the economic side, there is also article 53 that creates the Zero Hunger in-kind transfer, which «consists of the delivery of in-kind resources to guarantee the human right to food of the population living in poverty and extreme poverty.»
In mining, through article 186, the Government will seek to prohibit «the development of new projects for the extraction of thermal coal in the open pit classified as large-scale», in order to advance in the trajectory of decarbonization of the sectors.
The San Juan de Dios Hospital and ‘Basura Cero’ return to the table on behalf of the PND
One of the points of President Petro’s PND is article 298, through which he is granted extraordinary powers for six months to implement public policies, including one aimed at the recovery of the San Juan de Dios Hospital.
Although the document does not detail the President’s plan for the hospital, his idea is to prevent the central tower from being demolished – the current Management Plan gives free rein for it to be demolished – and manage to recover all the hospital premises. Thus, the Government seeks to «acquire, free of charge or for consideration, the Infrastructure of San Juan de Dios” and also «create the public entity (…) that uses it for the provision of health services.»
Another old desire that is within the Plan is the creation of the ‘Zero Waste’ program, which he tried to apply in Bogotá during his term and whose objective, according to Petro, is to remunerate recyclers, reduce cleaning fees and reduce burial. solid waste open pit.
Finally, no mention of the two Metro lines is included, a situation that is most criticized by the mayor Claudia López (see page 1.10), to which the Government responded by saying that they were not in the document because «they are financed with vigencias futures».
Eliminates EPS as responsible for paying hospitals and the role is assumed by the Executive
In the health sector, the Plan will address issues that, according to what has been known, would be included in the health reform initiative that is currently being developed.
In article 125, the Government indicates that «the Resource Manager General System of Social Security in Health (ADRES)on behalf of the Health Promotion Entities (EPS) and other Entities Obliged to Compensate, made the direct transfer of the resources of the Capitation Payment Units (UPC) of the contributory and subsidized regimes”.
In other words, the Government would stop turning to the EPS so that they pay the hospitals, and instead would begin to directly fulfill the function of paying the hospitals.
Said article has been critical because, according to experts, it would be the beginning to eliminate EPS.
In this regard, the former Minister of Health Beatriz Londoño said that the article is viable to be in the PND and that it was something that had already been proposed in previous governments. However, the capacity of the State to assume this role was questioned. “At no time is this article saying that Adres is going to be the payer or is going to audit, but that it is going to expand its role as the entity in charge of revolving. It is necessary to take into account if the Directorate is capable of fulfilling this function”, emphasized Londoño.
