The OECD Review of Regulatory Policy in Colombia is one of a series of country reports carried out under the OECD’s Regulatory Reform Programme, in response to the 1997 mandate by OECD ministers.

Colombia is a unitary constitutional republic, composed of 32 departments (departamentos), as well as municipalities, special districts, and one capital-district (Distrito-Capital) in Bogota.

Colombia is a unitary constitutional republic, composed of 32 departments (departamentos), as well as municipalities, special districts, and one Capital-District (Distrito-Capital) in Bogota. The Government of Colombia (GOC) functions within the framework of a presidential representative democratic republic as established in the Constitution of 1991. In accordance with the principle of separation of powers, government is divided into three branches: executive, legislative, and judicial.

This chapter summarises the OECD Economic Survey of Colombia. It sets out the macroeconomic context for the review, including recent macroeconomic trends, the contribution of regulatory reform to economic performance, and the remaining challenges for the Colombian economy, notably in terms of boosting labour productivity, adjusting to the commodity boom, and reducing income inequality. Prudent macroeconomic management has helped Colombia weather the recent financial crisis remarkably well, but the remaining challenges call for structural reform in both product and labour markets. Colombia’s regulatory simplification efforts have led to significant improvements in the quality of the business environment and a more solid foundation for private sector development. This chapter argues that these efforts need now to translate into initiatives to improve regulatory quality more generally.

Chapter 3 describes the administrative and legal environment for regulatory reform in Colombia, including an explanation of the hierarchy of regulations. It explains the core principles and legal instruments that set the policies the Government of Colombia pursues to improve its regulatory quality. In addition, the chapter analyses recent and current regulatory reform initiatives such as the policy for the simplification of formalities, government online, competition advocacy, and regulation inside government. Furthermore, the chapter describes current initiatives of international regulatory co-operation in which Colombia participates. Finally, it provides recommendations for Colombia to develop a formal and explicit regulatory policy.

Chapter 4 describes the organisation of the government in three branches, executive, legislative and judicial, as well as their role in promoting regulatory improvement. It provides a detailed analysis of the organisation and governance of regulatory agencies, namely ministries and regulatory commissions, and supervisory bodies, called Superintendencias, as well as their synergies and the co-ordination challenges in the functioning of these different entities. Finally, the chapter provides recommendations to strengthen the institutional set up for regulatory reform, upgrade co-ordination mechanisms, and advance accountability and autonomy of regulatory bodies.

This chapter describes the procedures currently in place in Colombia to produce legislation and subordinate regulations and the extent to which core principles of good regulation are applied. It assesses the capacity of the Government of Colombia to produce high quality regulation and to ensure that both, processes and decisions, are transparent to the public. In doing so, the chapter illustrates the use of tools for administrative transparency and predictability, such as forward planning and plain language, the application of regulatory consultation for dialogue with stakeholders, the consideration of alternatives to regulation, and progress and potential for the implementation of Regulatory Impact Analysis. Finally, it provides recommendations to advance and improve the use of these tools.

Chapter 6 describes the management and rationalisation practices that the Government of Colombia applies on existing regulations, particularly a centralised registry for formalities and services and different simplification initiatives to streamline specific economic processes, such as the Business Support Centres, the one-stop shops for property registration and foreign trade, Competitive Regulation, and the Group on rationalisation and automatisation of formalities. It also explains the need for a baseline measurement of administrative burdens and the use of other simplification tools, such as the silence is consent rule. Finally, it provides recommendations to improve the management of the regulatory stock and focus current simplification initiatives.

This chapter discusses the approaches applied by the Government of Colombia to advance regulatory enforcement and compliance, particularly the role played by Superintendencias. This analysis includes a description of the extent to which risk-based approaches are applied to focus control and inspection activities. It also explains the alternatives citizens have to appeal regulatory decisions and the roles of institutions such as the Constitutional Court and the State Council. Finally, the chapter provides recommendations to improve judicial review processes.

This chapter describes the status of ex post evaluation of regulations, as well as regulatory programmes and institutions, emphasising the experience gained by regulatory commissions in conducting reviews of their normative frameworks every three years. The chapter concludes by recommending a more generalised use of ex post evaluation.

Chapter 9 describes the organisation of the Colombian territory and the distribution of regulatory powers among the different levels of government. Despite the fact that the mandates of territorial entities are residual, there are fields in which their powers impact significantly on economic activity. The chapter also introduces different means used in Colombia to advance multi-level co-ordination, such as associations, alliances, and pacts agreed by sub-national jurisdictions. It discusses the need to establish a multi-level dialogue platform and to clarify the roles of sub-national governments in promoting better regulation and the support the central government can provide. The chapter then briefly analyses challenges for and good practices in regulatory reform at the sub-national level. Finally, it provides recommendations to improve multi-level dialogue and co-ordination.

This chapter discusses the status of regulatory policies, institutions, and tools in the Special, Industrial, and Port District of Barranquilla. It starts by reviewing the main socioeconomic trends in the District and its legal status. The chapter then introduces a framework to understand multi-level regulatory governance. Afterwards, it discusses why Barranquilla requires a regulatory policy, the institutional design of its government, and the co-ordination mechanisms in which it takes part. Finally, it analyses the extent to which the District government makes use of tools to manage inspections and enforcement, improve the quality of the flow of regulations, advance regulatory transparency and communication, and apply administrative simplification.