In the framework of Colombian public spending there is a figure little known to citizens, but who handles million-dollar sums, has a growing influence in the execution of the national budget and despite the fact that from there he has opened the door to corruption cases such as Risk Management, are not monitored as they should.
These are extrabudgetary funds, a legal mechanism that has been in force for years, created with the purpose of expediting public investment in strategic areas or addressing emergencies, but which, despite their size, has operated at a level of discretion that today raises alerts in control entities and civil society organizations.
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One of the most recent calls comes from Transparency for Colombia, which in dialogue with Portafolio warned about the risks of corruption and opacity associated with these funds, highlighting that, for example, in the 2025 General Budget of the Nation, 26 extrabudgetary funds were identified that, Together, they amounted to $30.9 billion, a figure that is equivalent to more than an average tax reform.
The executive director of Transparency for Colombia, Andrés Hernández, explained that “these funds are legal mechanisms through which public resources are executed to respond to emergencies or develop strategic programs, but they do not follow the same parameters of the national budget. That makes them more agile, but also more difficult to control.”
Andrés Hernández, director of Transparency for Colombia
Courtesy – API
In other words, they are parallel pockets of public money that operate with special regimes, usually under private law regulations and unlike ordinary budget items, which must adjust to state contracting procedures, these funds can make more flexible decisions, which implies greater discretion in the allocation and execution of resources.
The difference between the rule and the exception
To better explain the importance of the issue, Hernández recalled that an extrabudgetary fund “departs from the traditional rules that any other item of public spending must observe.” This means that the money allocated to these funds is not subject to the same transparency, publicity or traceability controls as the rest of the budget.
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For example, contracts derived from these resources are not always published in the Electronic Public Contracting System (SECOP), the platform that centralizes information on state contracting in Colombia and although a recent regulation (Law 2195 of 2022 or the last major anti-corruption reform) obliged all public entities, including those that manage these funds, to publish their contractual information, compliance has been irregular.
“In many cases some information is published, but in an incomplete or confusing manner,” says Hernández, who highlights that “when we compare what we receive when requesting information with what appears in SECOP, we find gaps and deficiencies. This means that, although compliance appears, in reality citizens cannot know clearly how the money is being used.”
The National Government must strengthen the oversight of public resources.
Image from ChatGPT
The result is a panorama of structural opacity, since in theory, extrabudgetary funds they must complement the management of the national budget; But in practice, many of them end up acting as autonomous decision-making spaces, with low accountability.
Discretion and risk
Discretion, explains Hernández, is the key word to understand the problem, since unlike a ministry or an entity that must follow the principles of transparency, equality and objective selection when hiring, these funds can decide when, how and with whom to spend the resources, without being obliged to render detailed accounts on the criteria of those decisions.
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“When we say that there is discretion, it means that resources can be executed without having to explain the criteria used for their allocation. If you want to contract directly, you do it. If you want to open a tender, you open it. But there is not the same obligation to justify why one or another decision was made,” he said.
This room for maneuver, added to the lack of publicity of the contracts, creates a favorable terrain for corruption, according to Transparency for Colombia, for whom, in practice, extrabudgetary funds allow spending with fewer controls, which opens the possibility of political or improper use of public resources.
The National Government must strengthen the oversight of public resources.
Image from ChatGPT
The most illustrative case is that of the National Unit for Disaster Risk Management (UNGRD), whose fund was the protagonist of one of the biggest recent scandals in the public administration. There, it was evident how the lack of traceability and controls allowed the manipulation of resources for possible political purposes.
“This case perfectly illustrates the risk of these funds. They are resources with little visibility, difficult to track, that can end up used for purposes other than those intended, even in the financing of political campaigns,” said Hernández.
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A parallel spending architecture
Beyond the amount of money they move, for Transparencia por Colombia it is necessary to pay more attention to the issue, since these funds have been extended to multiple sectors such as the environment, equity, peace, reconstruction, justice and disaster response, among others. Some have existed for years, such as those related to justice and peace processes, while others were created recently, such as those associated with the Ministries of Environment and Equality.
Each government, explains Hernández, tends to create new funds for its priorities, usually during the discussion of the National Development Plan and although its creation must be approved by Congress, subsequent management remains in the hands of the Executive, which increases its autonomy and makes citizen monitoring difficult.
The National Government must strengthen the oversight of public resources.
Image from ChatGPT
“It is a recurring figure in Colombian legislation, but the country does not have a unified inventory of all the funds that exist or how much they actually manage. And without that information, it is almost impossible to supervise them,” he said.
Finally, despite the risks, Hernández insists that the problem is not the figure itself, but the lack of effective control mechanisms, since extrabudgetary funds can play an important role in responding to emergencies or in the rapid execution of public policies, as long as the same transparency requirements are applied to them as to the rest of the State.
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“Our purpose is not to stigmatize the funds. In many cases they are necessary because one cannot wait six months for a tender while there is an emergency to attend to. But the lack of control makes them vulnerable. What we ask for is simple: transparency, publicity and traceability. Know how resources are used, who executes them and with what criteria”; he concluded.
For the organization, these three conditions would be a first step to close the information gap and reduce the risks of misuse of public money; While in the future, more sophisticated control mechanisms could be added, but the immediate urgency is to comply with the law and make visible what remains hidden today.
DANIEL HERNÁNDEZ NARANJO
Portfolio Journalist
