In the midst of the context of economic slowdown that the country is experiencing, the execution of money continues to be one of the pending issues of the National Government, especially for areas such as investment, which is what is most needed at this time, and in the that until now, according to unions and analyststhere are many announcements, but few concrete advances from the Casa de Nariño.
During the accountability of its management for the year 2024, the Ministry of the Treasury released the updated budget execution figures with a cut-off date of September, in which the lag remains in the distribution of State money for the different sectors of the Economy, both in operating expenses and in the assigned items. at the beginning of the year to invest.
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In this sense, the first thing to say is that of the $502.5 billion in budget appropriations, that is, the money that can be used to operate, pay debt and investment, $331.8 billion have been committed so far , which is equivalent to 65.9% of the 2024 Budget. Likewise, regarding obligations, the amount is reduced to $284.3 billion, which is the same as 56.5% of the total budgeted money.
In the words of the Minhacienda, “without taking into account debt service, contractual commitments were acquired for $269.2 billion, 11.8% more than the value committed at the end of September 2023, when $240.8 billion were observed. Thanks to said contractual management, goods and services worth $221.8 billion, which is equivalent to 54.2% of authorized spending for the entire year.”
Ministry of Finance and Public Credit.
However, when the money paid is reviewed, which represents the resources that finally reach the country’s economy, it is seen that it is only $282.5 billion. In other words, of the total money projected for this period, only 56% has been spent; while there is still more than $170 billion that is not known for sure how it will be used.
“Payments other than public debt amounted to $220.5 billionequivalent to 99.5% of the obligations of this type and 53.9% of the current appropriation, which demonstrates the normality of the cash flows that honor the commitments acquired in the General Budget of the Nation,” they explained from the Treasury portfolio
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In general terms and using only the payment indicator as a reference, the best executions of the Budget are in the sectors of Education (70.1%), Health (68.8%), Defense and Police (64.8%), Mines and Energy (64.7%) and the Prosecutor’s Office (62.4%). If we take into account that to reach 100%, which has never happened so far, we would have to advance 8.33% monthly and by September we would have to be at 75%; The entire Government is left.
How is the investment?
Going deeper into the budget accounts and reviewing only the investment money, which is what the country really needs to overcome the bad pace that the economy is experiencing, the accounts are less favorable, since there are entities where the execution does not reach not even 20% in commitments, while in others the payments They barely exceed 8%, which means that significant delays are already expected for 2025.
Colombian pesos
So far this year, in the current spending accounts it was approved that the investment would receive $100 billion this year. Of this money, $69 billion had been committed as of September, which is equivalent to 69% of that total, while obligations are around 35% and payments are at the same level. In a simpler way, there is still $65 billion that could be boosting the economy but that remains static in the national accounts and of these it is not yet known what $35 billion will be used for.
On the other hand, if we take into account that in August this indicator was at 30%, it is clear that there is progress in the month-to-month comparison, but it falls very short compared to the best report that the treasury accounts have of 53% in 2022 and against the same month of 2023, when it was already it was going above 40%.
Doing the same exercise of concentrating only on paid resources, since for the experts they are the ones who really feel in the economic dynamics, the best executions are the Ministry of Equality (57.7%), followed by the Ministry of Science and Technology (55%), Education (52.8%), Labor (49.6%), Prosecutor’s Office (49.5%) and the Truth, Justice and Non-Repetition System (49.6%).
Meanwhile, the lowest executions are in the Presidency of the Republic (8.6%), Treasury (14.7%), Sports and recreation (15.4%), Intelligence (15.6%) and Housing (16 .8%); The latter being the one that draws the most attention, since it is essential to reactivate sectors such as industry and construction, but it currently has almost $6 billion to execute, of which it has obligated $1.1 billion and has paid almost the same amount, while there is $1.1 billion unassigned.
