Convergencia Research, Consultoría especializada en Latinoamérica y Caribe
Wednesday, November 10, 2021

Carmen Valderrama's challenge is to clean up the Mintic’s image

Carmen Valderrama was appointed as the new ICT minister after Karen Abudinen, suspected of corruption, resigned. The connectivity and legal challenges she faces with just 10 months in office.

Since the end of October, Colombia has had a new ICT minister: Carmen Ligia Valderrama Rojas, who took office in a ceremony attended by the President of the Republic, Iván Duque.

The context of her taking office is not ideal. She arrives to occupy the position left vacant by Karen Abudinen, who resigned after suspicions of having committed acts of corruption in the contract between the Mintic and the UT (Unión Temporal Centros Poblados). The end of Abudinen's management occurred on September 9 last, when she issued a video message through her Twitter account, communicating "today I am leaving in pain." President Duque took just over a month to evaluate who could assume the position, and given the context, the strengths for the position should be different: “We know of her managerial capacity and her ethical and moral condition, as well as her legal solvency,” Duque said when Carmen Valderrama took office.

Who is Carmen Valderrama? The new ICT minister is a lawyer and specialist in Business Law from the Externado de Colombia University. She has more than 20 years of experience in business law and public management, and has been a Superintendent of Transportation and Minister of Transportation.

 “I am pleased with your appointment and I have been able to count on your service and support in these three years and two months in office. You are a person with a great professional career. We have been able to work in the Superintendency of Transportation and we have also seen her assume the work of the Vice Ministry of Transportation with great integrity and dedication,” praised Duque.

In addition to her time in that portfolio, her experience in inspection, surveillance and control, contract law and competition stands out, thanks to positions such as head of the Legal Office, General Secretariat, Advisor to the Superintendent, Deputy Superintendent for Industrial Property, Deputy Superintendent for Consumer Protection and Superintendent of Industry and Commerce.

This legal knowledge had its first action on October 28, when congressmen questioned her about the quality of the connectivity service in the country and the status of the investigation of the contract for digital centers in rural areas. "The ministry has an enormous political responsibility, in this embezzlement that they did to the country," she replied. In addition, she assured that “we will reach the last consequences, we will be forceful, we will be accompanying the control authorities in these investigations. We will make the most appropriate legal decisions and we will inform the country about the results.”

The challenges ahead. In her presentation to the congressmen, the roadmap for the remaining 10 months of her mandate was made clear. In first place and at a legal level, resolve what will happen to the contract between the Mintic and the UT Centros Pablados. It is that before she left her position, Abudinen had ensured that it would fall into the hands of the ETB operator. However, Valderrama denied that statement: "To date it has not been defined, we are evaluating the situation of this contract in great detail." At the same time, she recalled that “I have just arrived, and my responsibility is to see it not only from a financial point of view, there are committed monies that matter, but we also have to see it from a legal and technical point of view, what is the better option".

Beyond the lega issuel, in terms of connectivity, the primary objective is to ensure that 70% of Colombians have access to the Internet, a number that currently stands at 56%. The most urgent areas are the archipelago of San Andrés, Provindencia and Santa Catalina.

She also referred to the country's digital transformation, noting that they aim for 3.5 million Colombians to have their authenticated digital signature in order to access State services. Along these lines, Duque specially commissioned her to continue advancing "in one of the most important issues, which is the training of 100,000 programmers," something of which a lot has already been done, given that today there are 55,000 trained professionals.

Undoubtedly, it will be 10 intense months that remain ahead of the new minister, who on the first day of November added María del Rosario Oviedo to her team as vice minister of Connectivity of the Mintic. Oviedo is also a lawyer, specializing in Administrative Law and has been working in the public sector for five years focused on legal advice, public policy and regulation. Valderrama knows her very well since they worked together in the Vice Ministry of Transport: “With her trajectory, honesty and unrivaled commitment, she will not only be able to reduce the digital gap that we currently have, but will also advance in building strategies that allow a digital future so that we are better connected,” highlighted Valderrama in the appointment ceremony.

Without saying it explicitly, the Mintic seeks to wash its image with two figures from the field of law to, mainly, put the papers in order, and also complete the work that remains to be done in 10 months to meet the connectivity objectives.

 

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