Government returns to Thomas Greg and signs passport contract

Colombia’s Foreign Ministry signed a temporary contract with Thomas Greg and Sons to keep producing passports in the country. The arrangement is called “Unión temporal documentos de viaje 2027.” Its central purpose is continuity: Colombians should continue receiving passports while the government’s longer-term model remains unsettled.

The contract lasts 15 months and was signed under a declaration of manifest urgency, with support from the Procuraduría. Thomas Greg submitted its proposal with Thales DIS Colombia S.A. as part of a temporary union. The government later requested authorization for future budget commitments.

The agreement is scheduled to cover passport production until December 2027. It followed the Administrative Tribunal of Cundinamarca’s temporary suspension of a different agreement involving the Foreign Ministry and the National Printing Office. That agreement concerned a new passport model made with assistance from Portugal’s Casa da Moeda.

In Colombian public contracting, a declaración de urgencia manifiesta is an exceptional legal route for responding quickly to an urgent public need. It can allow an authority to contract without following the full timetable of an ordinary competitive process. The mechanism is meant to protect essential services when delay could create serious disruption. This explanation uses general public-contracting knowledge; the article does not provide the legal text or every requirement.

The Foreign Ministry used it because passport production had to continue. The ministry argued that the tribunal’s order required it to adopt and execute measures guaranteeing uninterrupted service. The contract was also signed with Procuraduría accompaniment, according to the article.

Omar Bula called the arrangement necessary but temporary. The government therefore treated urgency as a bridge, not as a permanent passport policy. The agreement lasts 15 months while the dispute and transition around the passport model continue.

The contract totals $240 billion pesos and covers 15 months of passport production. Dividing the total by the term gives an average of about $16 billion pesos per month. That is a simple average, not a reported monthly payment schedule. The article does not state how many passports the contract will produce or the cost of each document.

The scale matters because passports are a nationwide public service. The contract must support continued production after the government’s planned arrangement with the National Printing Office was temporarily stopped. Thomas Greg and Thales DIS Colombia presented the proposal together under a temporary union, which shows the arrangement involves more than one company.

The figure also shows that passport continuity carries a substantial public cost. It does not, by itself, prove how efficient the contract is or how many people will be served. Those questions require production, delivery, and pricing data that the article does not provide.

A passport is needed for international travel, so a production interruption could leave Colombians without a valid document when they need to travel. Possible consequences include delayed departures, postponed trips, and difficulty completing travel procedures. These are general consequences of a passport-service interruption; the article does not describe a specific disruption or estimate how many travelers could be affected.

The government acted to avoid that risk. The Foreign Ministry said the tribunal’s order required measures guaranteeing uninterrupted service. It then signed a 15-month contract with Thomas Greg and Sons under manifest urgency. Omar Bula presented the agreement as a temporary solution to maintain production.

The immediate reality is that the contract is intended to keep passports available through December 2027. Longer term, the government still faces questions about the passport model and the suspended arrangement with the National Printing Office. The article does not state what final model will prevail.

The Administrative Tribunal of Cundinamarca temporarily halted an agreement between the Foreign Ministry and Colombia’s National Printing Office. That agreement was designed to issue a new passport model, which began operating in April 2026 with assistance from Portugal’s Casa da Moeda. The suspension created uncertainty around the planned production arrangement.

The article does not explain the tribunal’s legal reasoning or say that it rejected the passport model permanently. It only reports a temporary stop and emphasizes that there was still no decision on the substance of the model. The Foreign Ministry relied on the tribunal’s fifth order when defending its emergency contract.

That order, according to the ministry, required the government to take measures guaranteeing uninterrupted service. The government therefore turned to Thomas Greg and Sons for a temporary 15-month contract. The final direction of the passport model remains unresolved in the information provided.

Thomas Greg remains a major passport contractor because it has managed passport issuance for more than a decade. The company also handles electoral logistics, giving it an established role in other national operations. These are the article’s stated reasons for its continuing prominence; it does not provide market-share data or compare the company with competitors.

The latest agreement is the fourth declaration of manifest urgency signed with the company in four years. The previous three were signed during Petro’s government, each with a different foreign minister. The article also says one was signed near the end of that government while officials were structuring the new passport model.

The current contract returns Thomas Greg to passport production after the government’s change in approach. It will last 15 months, through December 2027. The arrangement is temporary, while the legal and administrative questions surrounding the new model remain open.

A passport is an official document that identifies its holder and allows that person to request entry or transit across international borders. It usually records key identity details and connects the document to the issuing country. This basic definition comes from general world knowledge; the article itself assumes readers already understand what passports are.

Governments control passport issuance because identity documents must be produced through trusted systems. Authorities need to verify who receives a document, protect it against fraud, and maintain reliable records. Other countries and border officials rely on the issuing government’s authority when examining the document. These general functions explain why production is treated as a public service.

In Colombia, the Foreign Ministry is responsible for keeping that service operating. The article reports a $240 billion, 15-month contract with Thomas Greg and Sons for passport production. It also describes a continuing dispute over the country’s new passport model and its production arrangements.