This decree, now suspended, was intended to give President Gustavo Petro the responsibility of regulating the prices of public services, a task that had not had a national president since 1994. Luisa González / REUTERS

The court ruled against decree 227 of February 16, 2023, with which the President, Gustavo Petro, sought to control the tariff framework for public services. Through a presentation to the Board of statehe magistrate Robert Serrato He said the document did not explain why the time to receive concepts had been reduced.

The administrative code establishes that citizens and interested parties have 15 working days to deliver their concepts, this process was not respected with the publication of the decree in question, for which a two-day deadline was granted.

The document establishes that this deadline was fixed “taking into account the fact that it is a question of taking over the regulatory competence at the expense of the President of the Republic”, however, for the Board of state the principle of transparency and publicity has been violated as long as:

“Sustainability that does not respect the obligation to adequately justify and has reinforced the reason why the publicity of the draft regulations has been limited, as well as the restriction of the right to citizen participation at the stage preceding the issuance of the administrative decision”, explained the magistrate Roberto Serrato.

Under this argument, the first section affirmed that the powers of the entities in charge of the surveillance of the public services are already established in the political letter of 1991, reason for which it took precautionary measures.

“the urgent precautionary measure of provisional suspension of the legal effects of decree 227 of February 16, 2023 ‘By which some of the presidential functions of a regulatory nature in the field of residential public services are resumed and other provisions are promulgated'”, read in the text stopped by Board of state.

The magistrate tightened He also spoke about the precautionary measures, requested by the plaintiffs of the decree, considered that it was not a process that could be postponed, since the document was published three months ago, according to information published by NCR Radio.

In practice, the decision prevents the President Gustavo Petro assume control of tariffs in public services, as long as a substantive decision has not been rendered in the lawsuit filed and pending a decision by the Council of State.

tightened stressed that this is an emergency measure, which prevents irremediable measures from being taken by the national government, for its part, the National Association of Public Service Companies has informed that it will continue to exercise his functions until the publication of the decree.

President Gustavo Petro took the decision to regulate the prices of public services through the Decree 227 on February 16, 2023, to try to lower the prices, for example, of the energy service which in 2022 increased by 22.40%.

Petro has therefore decided to no longer delegate his duties to the utility regulatory commissions, “this president has decided not to delegate his duties to the utility regulatory commissions, at least for a time. So I will assume control, the policies of the General Administration of Colombia, directly and personally, based on what the law itself says: first, the general interest and that of the user “.

But depending on the medium Week, said decree was pursued by the lawyers of the firm DLA Piper Martínez Beltrán, in a personal capacity. This request was presented through the Administrative Department of the Presidency of the Republic, in which defects of form and substance were invoked in the nullity of the decree.

The 56-page complaint was filed with the administrative litigation chamber of the Board of state and in it, a “simple nullity action” was requested.

According to the lawyers, the decision to pursue the decree was made because the national government failed to comply with the prior publicity and socialization requirements required by law, where it is the entity’s obligation to publish the decree. decree for a minimum of 15 days, a timetable for citizens to formulate opinions, proposals or suggestions in this regard.

“However, as evidenced by the defendant’s act and its respective supporting report, this period was unduly limited from 15 to 2 calendar days,” the complaint added.

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