The Colombian Attorney General's Office has suspended Counselor Alvaro Leyva for three months

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Written by Luis Jaime Acosta

Bogota (Reuters) The Colombian Attorney General's Office suspended Foreign Minister Alvaro Leyva for three months over alleged irregularities in a passport tender, the watchdog said Wednesday.

The minister decided to cancel the tender in 2023, after only one international company, Thomas Greg & Sons, presented itself as a competitor, forcing the Colombian government to take emergency action according to which the same company would continue to produce passports until a new tender was called.

The Colombian government claimed that it could not award the contract because only one company entered the competition, which was actually possible, according to experts.

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The prosecutor said that the accusation and temporary dismissal from his position were decisions taken to avoid a possible recurrence of the disciplinary offenses attributed to Leyva, taking into account his role as regulator of the chancellery's expenses and as manager of the new contractual process underway for the administration of passports. office .

It was initially impossible to obtain comments from the advisor, who was outside the country on a mission related to his position, nor from the government.

There were also no comments from the company involved in the case.

(Reporting by Luis Jaime Acosta)