The beginning of the Guarantees Law on January 31 unleashed a frenetic race in public entities to secure resources and agreements.

A recent report from the Comptroller General of the Republic revealed that the first month of the year became a true hiring “fair”, with increases that exceed 64% compared to the same period in previous years.

According to the control entity, between January 1 and 30, 2026, 521,269 contracts were signed for an astronomical value of $32.88 billion, a figure that raises serious doubts about the transparency in the use of public resources prior to the electoral campaign.

The DIARI (Directorate of Information, Analysis and Immediate Reaction) analysis details that the maximum peak of this surge occurred in the last week of January, where $14.8 billion were awarded.

On January 30 alone, the last business day before the restriction, contracts worth $5.7 billion were signed.

When comparing these movements with the last contracting prior to the elections (in 2022), the total amount grew by 30.4%, which shows unusual behavior.

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Territorial entities were the most active, concentrating $17.7 billion of the national total, led by cities such as Barranquilla, Medellín and Cali.

At the national level, institutions such as the Sena and the ICBF top the list with agreements that exceed one billion pesos each. While the State accelerates these massive signatures, Senator Angélica Lozano denounced that thousands of current contractors have suffered delays in their payments since December, describing the situation as an administrative contradiction.

For his part, the delegate of the Comptroller’s Office, Andrés Felipe Cifuentes, warned that cross-checking of information is already being carried out to determine if this concentration of resources seeks to favor political machines or if it responds to real needs of the public administration.

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