Superservicios says that the Government is empowered to resume functions of the Drinking Water and Basic Sanitation and Energy and Gas regulation commissions.
A great controversy has been unleashed in the country by the statement made by President Petro in Duitama, Boyacá, to temporarily, directly and personally assume control of the administration policies of residential public services based on the users, which which, obviously, excited an audience made up of members of community action boards from that department, while companies in the sector, technicians and political opponents have criticized.
According to Petro, his decision is based on article 370 of the Constitution and 68 of Law 142 of 1994 on Public Services.
“The President of the Republic, by constitutional order, has the power to generate the general administration, control and efficiency policies of residential public services, which are water, electricity,” said the president.
He added that he has decided not to delegate his functions to the public service regulation commissions, at least for a while.
For his part, the Superintendent of Public Services, Dagoberto Quiroga, affirmed that the Government is empowered to resume functions of the Drinking Water and Basic Sanitation and Energy and Gas regulation commissions, that their purpose is to guarantee that the provision of services public services is efficient, of quality and at a reasonable cost.
Recoil
Consulted in this regard by the media, the president of the National Association of Public Services and Communications Companies (Andesco), Camilo Sánchez, described Petro Urrego’s announcement to assume the functions of regulatory commissions for public services as a setback for the country.
“Public services are private, public and mixed, which defines a market with various particularities,” said Sánchez, who added that the worst thing that can be done is to make dictatorial decisions that are not in light of the law.
The union leader sentenced that “lowering prices the hard way is repeating failed stories in neighboring countries: companies go bankrupt and services go bankrupt.”
Both Andesco and other players in the sector ask the president for clarity and explanation before a possible process that he intends to impose.