Senator and presidential candidate Paloma Valencia denounced an alleged massive hiring scandal in the Ministry of Equality, pointing out that the fund assigned to that portfolio would have been used to hire thousands of people and logistics operators in a discretionary manner, by private law, in the run-up to the 2026 elections.
According to Valencia, the situation came to light after a complaint filed in December of last year, when it warned that for two years the Fund had not published contracts. “It was a fair of contracts, bureaucracy and waste. We now understand why they did not publish anything,” he stated.
According to the congresswoman, the fund linked to MinIgualdad signed four contracts with the company Laborando SAS for a total of $70,582 million, intended for the employment of at least 3,304 temporary workers between September 2025 and May 2026.
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The known distribution includes 3,146 people for the Jóvenes en Paz program, 158 for the Gender-Based Violence System and an undetermined number for the operational management of the fund and the Agua es Vida program.
Valencia warned that the real number of contractors could be higher, since two contracts do not establish a personnel limit, which, according to his calculations, would represent an increase of 493% compared to the Ministry’s plant.
Valencia also questioned the need for these hirings, pointing out that as of November 2025, MinEgualdad had 191 contractors and 541 officials, none of them from an administrative career. Furthermore, between 2024 and 2025, the Fund would have hired 308 additional contractors, despite the fact that they fulfilled functions specific to the Ministry.
The candidate contrasted these figures with the budget execution: while the Ministry allocated $56,195 million for its payroll between January and November 2025, the Fund would have committed $70,582 million in just six months, 125% more than what was executed by the entity in ten months.
Low execution and other complaints
The complaint also includes the signing of two logistics operator contracts for $68,949 million, carried out by the Fund and not by the Ministry. According to Valencia, this would have been done to evade Law 80 on public procurement and allow direct contracting, with advances totaling more than $15,000 million.
Added to this, according to the senator, is the lack of transparency in the SECOP, where no invoices, technical annexes or supervision reports appear. He indicated that the contracts were only partially published after his warning in Congress.
The case is known amid other complaints about the portfolio, such as those made by Congresswoman Catherine Juvinao, who questioned the Ministry’s low budget execution and accused Minister Juan Fernando Florián of providing false information, which led to a disciplinary complaint before the Attorney General’s Office.
In addition, the dismissal of former Vice Minister of Equality Dumar Guevara was recently announced, who would have been involved in alleged contractual irregularities for more than $55,000 million with the FonIgualdad fund.
Everything happens while Congress discusses the future of the Ministry of Equality, which after being declared unenforceable by the Constitutional Court must be reconsidered.
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