Rompimiento del equilibrio económico del contrato estatal en época de covid-19: un asunto por revisar

Abstract

On the occasion of the sanitary emergency derived from the rapid spread of the virus causing COVID-19, and its declaration as a pandemic by the World Health Organization, the Colombian State was forced to decree a series of restrictive measures, which began with an isolation that prohibited the free mobility of citizens. This situation led to decreeing measures such as virtual work, both in the public and private sectors, in addition to implementing a system of virtuality in the educational system of all kinds. This generated multiple difficulties of all kinds, both in the provision of state services and in the supply of goods and services, which of course also affected the logic of state contracts. The present research aims to study the way in which the Health Emergency derived from COVID-19 had a direct and immediate effect on one of the figures that has acquired the greatest relevance within the framework of the foundation of the State's contractual responsibility: the economic balance of contracts. In fact, with the arrival of this pandemic, there were multiple assumptions that had a notable impact on the normal execution of contracts, starting with the restrictions on mobility that forced contractual suspensions, the need to incorporate protection elements in the acquisitions personnel and the establishment of biosafety protocols, as a mechanism to guarantee the general interest in the midst of this exceptional situation. Therefore, from the scope of the execution of the contract, it was necessary to find multiple solutions to prevent these circumstances from affecting the economic equation of the contract, events that currently may have been partially solved, notwithstanding the foregoing, the future may hold a very high litigation, which must be reached with legal strategies, which are built on the basis of equity, but which can also meet a criterion of efficiency and protection of public assets.