Colombia’s new energy minister has placed the Colombia Solar program under review, citing a lack of progress on a COP 4.2 trillion ($1.35 billion) agreement that currently has “zero connected users.” The review comes as Colombia and the United States deepen energy cooperation through new agreements on strategic minerals and civil nuclear technology.
Colombia’s new Minister of Mines and Energy, María Nohemí Arboleda, has placed the Colombia Solar program under review. The initiative, structured under the previous administration, includes a COP 4.2 trillion ($1.35 billion) agreement aimed at bringing photovoltaic systems to low-income households.
In recent comments on the ministry’s budgetary situation, Arboleda said officials are reviewing contracts with similar scopes, cases in which individual contractors held as many as five contracts, questions over officials’ work locations, and monitoring reports that, according to the minister, had not been submitted.
Arboleda also questioned the implementation of Colombia Solar, pointing to the COP 4.2 trillion allocation and saying the program currently has “zero connected users.”
“Obviously, the project cannot continue until there is clarity on what is happening, because it involves an allocated budget with no progress to show for it,” she said in remarks broadcast by Blu Radio.
