Incidencia del Decreto 537 del 2020 en la Transparencia de la Contratación Pública

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to determine the incidence of Decree 537 of 2020 on the transparency of public procurement in Colombia, within the framework of the Economic, Social and Ecological Emergency, decreed due to the Covid-19 pandemic; For the fulfillment of this purpose, a theoretical tracking of the different normative documents and legal investigations that attest to the events that have taken place to date is carried out, finding that Decree 537 of 2020 has the purpose of establishing and implementing urgent measures in the matter of public procurement, based mainly on: the implementation of technological tools; the suspension of sanctioning procedures, selection processes and the revocation of the opening act; measures aimed at giving preferential treatment to the use of demand aggregation instruments; emergency contracting; and the addition and modification of state contracts.

However, despite the intentionality and purpose of Decree 537 of 2020 and compliance with the formal requirements and constitutionality judgments, it can be evidenced that in the framework of this pandemic there have been irregularities in contracting, such as: benefiting third parties in the awarding of contracts, use of public resources for personal benefits, diversion of resources, contracting through manifest urgency without complying with the established legal provisions, among others. This implies intervention by the Colombian State to sanction all those in charge of participating in improper contracting practices, and thus ensure that those public resources that were wasted to face the pandemic crisis are restored.