Senate President Lidio García addressed the nonpayment of airline ticket bills for members of Congress: "It can't happen again."
Lidio García's first day as the new Senate president has begun with a problem . Senate Secretary Diego González announced on July 21 that the airline ticket purchase service for members of Congress had been suspended due to nonpayment.
The new head of the legislature spoke out on the issue after the plenary session and assured that they were already working to resolve the issue.
"This is the first issue we're facing, but everything is almost resolved. We're defining how to secure the necessary resources; payments aren't made for April, May, June, or July. This is an issue that has never happened before, and we're going to resolve it today," García said.
Lidio García, the new president of the Senate. Photo: John Jairo Pérez
He added: "That's an issue we're going to resolve, and it can't happen again here. So I want to reassure the senators because this is an issue that needs to be addressed on time, without any problems."
The Secretary's letter and the Ministry of Finance's response The statement signed by González explains the reasons why the service to transport parliamentarians to their regions was suspended .
"According to the information provided by the Administrative Office of the Senate of the Republic, the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit has not yet made payment of the April 2025 invoice to Mercado y Bolsa SA for the service of issuing airline tickets to this corporation," the document reads.
This is the statement regarding the non-payment of airline ticket bills. Photo: Private archive
He also added: “ Consequently, I would like to inform honorable senators that the travel agency Subatours SAS has indicated that it will not be able to guarantee the issuance of airline tickets until the outstanding payments are made.”
The Ministry of Finance issued a tweet stating that the payments have been made in a timely manner.
“@minhacienda would like to clarify that, in terms of payment for congress tickets, timely transfers have been made for the year 2025, as follows (figures in millions): April, $119; May, $262; June, $369; for July, they requested $623, which was approved, and invoices are being processed immediately,” the entity's publication reads.
Maria Alejandra Gonzalez Duarte
eltiempo
