Colombia’s Development Plan Becomes the Tool to Slim the State

By The Rio Times | Created at 2026-08-28 07:51:57 | Updated at 2026-09-05 02:52:07 1 week ago

Colombia · GOVERNMENT

Key Facts

—Quote A deputy finance minister said the government wants to show an effort to slim the state.
—Deadline Colombia’s development plan must reach Congress before 7 February 2027.
—Budget The 2027 bill filed on 27 August totals US$203.61 billion.
—Deficit The new government puts the 2026 shortfall at 7.8% of output.
—Contractors Officials count up to 900,000 service contracts across the state each year.

A deputy minister told bankers the government wants to show the country an effort to slim the state.

Colombia’s government says it wants to slim the state, and the tool will be its next four-year plan. Colombia’s development plan is due in Congress before 7 February 2027 under a law from 1994.

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The phrase that set the tone

Juan Sebastián Betancur is Colombia’s technical deputy finance minister. He spoke at the 2026 banking convention on 27 August about shrinking the state.

He said there is a bureaucracy the government wants to reduce, and transfers it could aim better. He added that the aim is to show the country an effort to slim the state.

The Spanish phrase he used was adelgazar el Estado, which translates as to slim down the state. Betancur used it while describing the fiscal adjustment the new administration is assembling.

He said the coming plan would allow far more structural reforms to the way the state works. Colombia’s development plan, in his account, is where that bureaucratic overhaul belongs.

How Colombia’s development plan is written

Every Colombian government must produce a Plan Nacional de Desarrollo, or PND, meaning National Development Plan. It is a law that fixes policy priorities and the public investment budget for four years.

The Departamento Nacional de Planeación, or DNP, is the National Planning Department that drafts the text. Julián Buitrago took over as its director on 14 August 2026.

The draft then goes to the Consejo Nacional de Planeación, or CNP, the National Planning Council. That body groups regions and civil society, and its opinion is advisory rather than binding.

Law 152 of 1994 says the president must send the draft to the CNP by 15 November. The council must reply before 10 January, or the step counts as completed.

The finance ministry then files the bill in Congress before 7 February. The last such law was Law 2294 of 2023, signed on 19 May that year.

The calendar facing the new government

De la Espriella took office on 7 August 2026, so his first statutory date falls on 15 November. Colombia’s development plan would then reach Congress by 7 February 2027.

The government has not published a timetable of its own. That leaves the statutory dates as the only firm milestones.

A magnitude 7.4 earthquake on 10 August reordered the government’s first weeks in office. The emergency decree put the damage near 30 trillion pesos (US$9.62 billion).

Planning department sources told El Espectador the plan now leans towards regional investment. Redesigning agencies, the louder campaign promise, has slipped down the list.

What a slimmer state would actually mean

El Espectador reported on 22 August that at least ten entities are lined up to merge. It named culture with sport, and the interior ministry with justice.

The Ministry of Equality is already being wound up, with duties passing to social prosperity and the interior. The peace commissioner’s office is being turned into a security commissioner.

In July the president-elect announced the removal of several presidential advisory offices. Portafolio reported 229 posts cut and annual savings near 10 billion pesos (US$3.2 million).

Campaign material spoke of cutting 19 ministries to nine or ten, and a leaked spreadsheet listed dozens of closures. Running mate José Manuel Restrepo denied on 10 June that the list existed.

The contractor payroll in the government’s sights

The Departamento Administrativo de la Función Pública is the department that oversees public employment. It describes a parallel payroll that may exceed 900,000 service contractors a year.

The government says it will not renew service contracts expiring between August and December 2026. That step needs no vote in Congress and is already under way.

Agriculture Minister Indalecio Dangond counted 18,310 such posts in his ministry alone. He put their cost above one trillion pesos (US$320.7 million) a year.

The National Land Agency accounts for 9,281 of them, worth 451 billion pesos (US$144.6 million). Its former director, Felipe Harman, said short contracts were counted twice or three times.

The fiscal frame behind the push

Finance Minister Miguel Gómez filed the 2027 budget on 27 August, totalling 634.9 trillion pesos (US$203.61 billion). It replaces an earlier bill of 575.6 trillion pesos (US$184.59 billion) that Congress sent back.

Peso figures here use the official rate of 3,118.24 pesos per dollar for 27 August 2026. That benchmark is the Tasa Representativa del Mercado, or TRM, Colombia’s official market rate.

Operating spending takes 392.5 trillion pesos (US$125.87 billion), a rise of 7.3%. Debt service jumps 54.7% to 155 trillion pesos (US$49.71 billion), while investment falls 2.8%.

The administration puts the 2026 deficit at 7.8% of output, matching the pandemic peak of 2020. Betancur says halting debt growth needs an adjustment above four points of gross domestic product.

What the law will and will not allow

A president can reorganise many agencies by decree, and this one has done so. Merging or abolishing a ministry is different, and needs a law or delegated powers.

Those delegated powers are called facultades extraordinarias, meaning extraordinary legislative powers granted by Congress. Colombia used them for ministry mergers in 2002 and for the reversal in 2011.

The 2002 reform joined the interior and justice ministries and cut 714 posts across six portfolios. The state undid that merger in 2011 because the promised savings never appeared.

Vanguardia reported in June that the development plan could itself carry those delegated powers. If Congress lets three months pass without approving the investment plan, the government may issue it by decree.

Emergency decrees follow a separate track after the earthquake declaration. Each goes to the Constitutional Court for automatic review.

Who objects and who approves

The Central Unitaria de Trabajadores, or CUT, is Colombia’s largest union federation. It called a national protest for 11 June, in a statement signed by its president Fabio Arias Giraldo.

The union said the plan would cut 700,000 public jobs and take the state from 216 bodies to 82. The government has not confirmed those figures.

Fecode, the teachers’ federation, warned on 12 August about a draft decree forcing pensioned staff out. No official text has been published, so that measure remains unconfirmed.

Mateo Castaño told El Colombiano in February that the state should shrink by 75 trillion pesos (US$24.05 billion). Colombia’s development plan is where that argument must now be settled.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Colombia’s development plan?

It is the four-year law that sets policy priorities and the public investment budget. Colombia’s development plan is drafted by the planning department and voted on by Congress.

When must the plan reach Congress?

Law 152 of 1994 sets 7 February, after the planning council reports by 10 January. Colombia’s development plan can be issued by decree if Congress stalls for three months.

Does the plan let the government abolish ministries?

Not on its own, because merging ministries needs a law or delegated powers from Congress. The planning bill could carry those powers, but no text has been published.