Debate over proposal to eliminate notaries in Colombia

Although the elimination or reform of notaries in Colombia has been a thorny issue and has been proposed several times in recent years, the fact is that the most recent campaign to Congress managed to bring the issue back to the center of the debate, due to Congressman Mauricio Toro's proposal to unify notaries into a single entity and replace some of these roles through blockchain technology.

Although for some it is a necessary proposal for the digitization scenario in the country, for others it is a project that ignores the reality of many Colombians, since internet connectivity is an issue that not everyone can access.

For Luis Miguel González, CEO of AutEntic, a platform specializing in digital authentication and electronic signature processes, “replacing notaries may even sound nice to many, but the truth is that blockchain does not replace them. Although this should certainly be a tool that notaries use to improve the performance of their function.”

But, besides that, what are the reasons why should notaries not be eliminated in Colombia? Gonzalez explained:

According to Carlos Abet Toro, notary 17 of Bogotá, although the Fourth Revolution has aroused the urgency of implementing and changing notarial technological services, Colombia needs to implement greater pedagogy in notaries, so that its officials understand the usefulness of the technologies being implemented.

“There must be a fundamental change in terms of training. That is, as far as possible, to generate courses, constant training, specialized studies and everything that allows the official who is serving the public within his duties to have the necessary and sufficient knowledge to provide all the necessary help and support,” explained Toro.

It also adds that the country urges greater integration of notaries with the different Registry Offices of Public Instruments, as the terms that exist in all the procedures linking them need to be shortened. “At present, the user is unfortunately greatly affected by the constant independence and lack of communication in which these two institutions live,” he concluded.

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