2023-09-08 07:01:00
In six days there will be the total closure of the call for “Young People in Science for Peace” from the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovationand its genesis is under suspicion due to the selection process of the entities that will finance productive youth projects in Tumaco (Nariño), Quibdó (Chocó) y Buenaventura (Valle del Cauca).
The initiative seeks to provide up to $14 million to the projects of young people between 18 and 28 years old – without work and who have not studied – who have a business idea in the science, technology and innovation sector through the chambers of commerce of those cities, who will accompany the beneficiaries with training in ideation, prototyping, intellectual property and scientific thinking.
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However, an investigation by El País of Spain showed the testimonies of some officials and former officials of the Minciencias who expressed that to carry out this program there were entities more and better prepared than the three chambers of commerce. These objections were even brought to the attention of Minister Yesenia Olaya Requene. Still, the hiring went ahead.
Notices to the contract
Currently, neither on the website of that Ministry nor in the Secop (Electronic Public Procurement System) is this contracting process available. And in the call announcement the space that shows the available resources is blank. According to the newspaper publication, it is a $2.88 billion process.
The officials who expressed these irregularities indicated that the chambers of commerce do not have the knowledge and experience to comply with the process – which is the special cooperation agreement No. 112721-156-2023–, since its mission and functions are not even close to promoting science, technology and innovation.
Given this, they assured that in those cities the Sena (National Learning Service), or even the Minciencias itself, had more conditions and preparation to provide young people with training in these fields.
The execution time of the agreement also worried these employees because they considered it insufficient. It is 18 months (year and a half), a time in which they had to design a support strategy, analyze the proposals that arrive, select the 50 beneficiaries, implement the business idea and make a final evaluation.
A suspicious signature?
The legal and financial areas are responsible for approving the agreements, but in this cooperation agreement their signatures were missing and in their place was that of Francy Natalia Mosquera García, who signed as an advisor to the Minciencias.
According to El País, Mosquera was a contractor for the Buenaventura Chamber of Commerce, which will receive part of the resources from the agreement.
EL COLOMBIANO was able to establish that Mosquera was appointed as an advisor to the Vice Ministry of Talent and Social Appropriation of Knowledge on April 5 of this year, with a salary of $5,538,344. Her hiring was made official with a resolution signed by former minister Arturo Luis Luna.
In its resume, Natalia Mosquera recorded 7 years and 8 months of work experience in the private sector, in which the position of coordinator in Colombia of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (United States) stands out.
This newspaper also consulted with the Minciencias if they would give an official statement in response to these events and from their communications office they responded that the General Secretariat “is working on a possible response,” which does not yet have a date.
The call in Quibdó closed on September 4 and those in Buenaventura and Tumaco will go until September 11 and 14, respectively. Will the program continue with these warnings? That decision remains in the hands of Minister Yesenia Olaya.
A ministry affected by changes
In a report made by the representative to the Chamber Hernán Cadavid (Democratic Center) on the changes that President Gustavo Petro has made in his government, it was highlighted that the ministry most affected by the 51 movements that the president made in his first year of government was that of Science, Technology and Innovation. There have been nine appointments in the two vice ministries.
“The vice ministries of the Ministry of Science that have had the most changes are that of Talent and Social Appropriation of Knowledge, with five appointments, and that of Knowledge, Innovation and Productivity, in which four appointments have been presented,” states the congressman’s report. .
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