President Gustavo Petro has definitely not had a good time with some of the appointments he has made to his government team. When the designations he makes do not fall to him, he ends up naming controversial characters and in the middle of investigations.
Manrique was part of the Petro joint committee in relation to this entity, which is in charge of managing the information systems that allow the monitoring, analysis and evaluation of public employmentthe performance of the public administration and decision-making for a better provision of the public service.
The new official had already worked with Petro when he was mayor of Bogotá. In the district administration he served as director of the capital’s Surveillance and Security Fund.
It was precisely in this position that he was involved in a corruption scandal due to the controversial contract for the purchase of 100 electric motorcycles for the Bogotá Metropolitan Police.
According to the investigation, the contract, signed for more than 4 billion pesos, for the purchase of the motorcycles was held in violation of the contracting law, since, instead of opening a tender, the business was awarded by finger, in 2012 , to the company Northbound Technologies, that it would not have met the quality requirements of the product, because a year later 90% of the motorcycles were stranded due to different situations, such as chassis problems, burnt out lights, worn brake pads, fallen footrests.
Due to these facts, the District Comptroller confirmed the finding with criminal and disciplinary incidence, and a patrimonial detriment of 2,311 million pesos.
In 2019, Manrique was sentenced for what happened to 10 years in prison for improper interest in the conclusion of contracts and contracts without compliance with legal requirements.
However, the ruling against Manrique, who was also mayor of Fusagasugá, was overturned by the Bogotá Superior Court in August 2020 for “due process violations”, which led to the revocation of the conviction, but the process is still ongoing. the prosecution.
In addition to his time in the district administration, the new director of Public Function has been a councilor of Fusagasugá, Cundinamarca; mayor of this same municipality and deputy of the Departmental Assembly of Cundinamarca. Likewise, he has been an advisor in the Senate of the Republic and has provided advice on law, peace and administrative decentralization issues in different entities such as the Government of Cundinamarca.
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Manrique was sworn in this Wednesday by President Petro, at the Casa de Nariño. Regarding his work as director and the vision he has for the entity, Manrique highlighted:
“With our work we want to vindicate the value of what is public and recover the confidence of citizens in the State. We want to dignify the work of public servants and transversally support all entities of the national and territorial order so that they provide an efficient, agile and close service to Colombians”.
Manrique is a lawyer from the Universidad Libre de Colombia and a Doctor of Law from the same institution. Additionally, he has a specialization in Constitutional Law and a master’s degree in Public Law from the Universidad Externado de Colombia.
Among the priorities presented by the director for the Administrative Department of the Public Function, the formalization of labor in the public sector stands out; structural review of entities to guarantee an accessible and efficient service; guarantee an inclusive State with opportunities for young people, women, the LGTBQ+ population and people with disabilities; the strengthening of territorial entities, and the contribution from the public sphere in the construction of peace.