Electoral Guarantees Law, a Challenge for Electronic Public Procurement in Colombia Ley de garantías electorales, un desafío para la contratación pública electrónica en Colombia

Abstract

The scourge of corruption in Colombia has become the originator of regulations whose purpose is to shield contractual activity impregnated by this disease; thus, laws such as Law 996 of 2005 called the Law of Electoral Guarantees, and state policies such as electronic public Procurement currently materialized in the Public Procurement Electronic System (SECOP by is Spanish acronym), were established by the legislator as paths of transparency and legality for contractual management.

However, based on the events that occurred in 2022, when a situation arose in the Electronic Public Procurement System (SECOP II by its Spanish acronym) due to the guarantees Law entry into force for holding the presidential elections, it became necessary to investigate the effects caused on electronic public procurement by that collapse. From this, it was concluded that the National Government must review the effectiveness of 2005 Law 996, especially regarding the prohibition established in Article 33 since this investigation was based on the analysis of the primary sources like the regulatory framework of 2005 Law 996 and the electronic public procurement; also from secondary sources of jurisprudence and doctrine, as well as data analysis by the comparison structure under a sample of state entities of the national and territorial order, demonstrated the high impact that this prohibition imposes on electronic public procurement, especially on the electronic contract transactionality.