La paradoja de la digitalización en la periferia: brecha tecnológica, desigualdad estructural y responsabilidad fiscal en los municipios de sexta categoría en Colombia

Abstract

In Colombia, digitalization has been promoted as a key tool to enhance transparency, citizen oversight, and fiscal accountability in public administration. However, this investigation argues that, in sixth-category municipalities—characterized by low fiscal capacity, limited technological infrastructure, and reduced administrative staffing—the uniform implementation of digital government policies may unintentionally deepen territorial inequalities. Through a combined normative methodology, the study examines how the deployment of platforms such as SECOP II and the preventive fiscal oversight model affects local administrations with low institutional capacity. The findings suggest that the lack of regulatory asymmetry and tailored institutional support transforms the digital gap into a rights gap, undermining fundamental constitutional principles such as equality, publicity, and due process. The research concludes with a proposal for an adaptive regulatory model that aligns digital transformation with institutional realities, ensuring that modernization becomes a vehicle for inclusion rather than exclusion. Keywords: Transparency; fiscal responsibility; constitutional rule of law; warning function; regulatory effectiveness; procedural guarantees; Legislative Decree 403 of 2020; Legislative Act No. 04 of 2019; SECOP.