2024-08-24 18:48:34
A technical failure in the House of Representatives system sparked a controversy after emails sent by the Ministry of Equality on August 20 and 21 were bounced and diverted to spam, according to official sources. This incident occurred when the Vice President and Minister of Equality, Francia Márquez, was due to present to the Congress of the Republic the key documents related to the budget projection of her portfolio for the year 2025.
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On August 21, Márquez appeared before the First Committee of the House of Representatives to discuss next year’s budget. During the session, several congressmen criticized the minister for not having sent the required budget information on time. In her defense, Márquez explained that the emails had been sent, but that they were blocked and diverted to spam due to technical problems in the House system, which generated skepticism among some legislators.
The House of Representatives reported that emails sent from the @minigualdad.gov.co domain had been rejected by a system setting designed to mitigate spam. This setting automatically blocked messages containing information crucial to the budget debate. Two days after the incident, the House Planning and Systems Office certified that the Ministry of Equality had sent the information within the established deadline, but that it was intercepted and sent to the spam folder of the House system. After identifying the problem, the setting was adjusted to ensure that emails from the Ministry of Equality would be received correctly in the future.
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Despite the technical clarification, Vice President Márquez continued to be under scrutiny from the public and other political actors, who questioned the management and effectiveness of the Ministry of Equality. In response to the problem, the House of Representatives also reported that it eliminated the rule that caused the rejection of the emails and adopted additional measures to prevent similar situations from happening again in the future.