Colombia Will Try Decentralization Again to Give the Regions a Greater Role
One of Colombia‘s great dreams, which at the same time is one of its worst frustrations, is decentralization to give more prominence to the regions. That power leaves Bogota. That initiative, once again, will have a boost with a project presented by the Government of Abelardo de la Espriella.
The Minister of the Interior, Rodrigo Lara, announced that an organic law of “territorial experimentation” will be filed in Congress, which will allow transferring competencies to territorial entities that are prepared, along with resources certified by the Ministry of Finance, within defined deadlines and public evaluation mechanisms.
The president “has said that we will govern from the regions. And that we will return freedoms and competencies to departments and municipalities,” Lara explained on the social network X, and specified that in this Government there will be a law of competencies, as required by Article 356 of the Constitution.
It is not just about a law of resource transfers
It will be “gradual, simultaneous and equivalent, with territorial differentiation and technical support,” Lara continued, and announced the processing method: it will be negotiated table by table with territorial entities. “It is not a law of transfers: it defines what the Nation releases, to whom and with what resources. To start immediately, this week we submit to Congress the organic law on territorial experimentation,” he said.
He warned that it will be up to the Congress of the Republic to decide, upon expiration of the pilot (or test), “whether it generalizes, adjusts or reverses” the government initiative.
The bill, the minister assured, allows transferring competencies now to territorial entities that are ready, with deadlines, resources certified by the Ministry of Finance and public evaluation.
“What one territory opens, it opens for the rest,” Lara illustrated to better explain his idea. “Meanwhile, we resume the work already carried out with municipalities and departments: the Decentralization Mission with the UNDP, the study of the Federation with the Universidad de los Andes, the Pact of the Greater Santa Marta and articles 287 and 302 that the regions put on the table in Rionegro,” he said.
According to the senior official, the Government wants to “develop the most ambitious decentralization agenda since the Constitution of 1991. It is not just about more spending: the new competencies currently located in Bogota —workforce training, educational infrastructure, roads and tertiary connectivity, rural development, early childhood, employment, tourism and borders— will be transferred with their budgets.”
“The Nation shrinks where it is oversized”
He also referred to experimental regulatory enablement: “allowing territories to adapt national rules to their reality, with express, specific and supervised authorization from Congress. Never in matters of statutory laws, public order or fundamental rights. The Nation contracts where it has excess. Territorial entities grow where they belong.”
Regarding the mechanism of experimental regulatory authorization, Lara assured that it would allow territories to adapt certain national rules to their own needs, always under express, exhaustive and monitored authorization by Congress.
“This possibility would not apply to matters related to statutory rules, public order or fundamental rights,” Lara clarified. “The Nation shrinks where it is oversized. Territorial entities grow where they belong.”
The initiative presented by Lara before the Legislature is one of the first concrete actions undertaken by the De la Espriella Government to materialize one of the banners it had raised since before arriving at the Casa de Narino: reducing the concentration of functions and decisions in Bogota and strengthening the role of the regions.
The gamble, in fact, had already begun to take shape with other announcements, such as the decision to also govern from its “alternate seat” in Barranquilla.
Added to this is the dialogue that the head of state has maintained with governors and mayors of different regions of the country since taking office, and even before when he began to hold regional transition meetings with them given the impossibility of doing so with the outgoing government.