Draft decree to transfer $25 trillion to Colpensiones is illegal, experts warn
The Ministry of Labor published a draft decree that seeks to transfer more than $25 trillion from individual savings accounts in private funds to Colpensiones in just 15 days. The measure impacts 118,000 affiliates and has triggered a high-caliber legal, fiscal, and political controversy.
TL;DR
- The Ministry of Labor's draft decree aims to transfer over $25 trillion from individual savings accounts in private pension funds to Colpensiones within 15 days.
- This measure impacts 118,000 affiliates who transferred to Colpensiones under a pension reform 'window of opportunity'.
- Legal experts, including Kevin Hartmann and Andrés Felipe Izquierdo, deem the decree illegal as it allegedly contradicts Article 76 of Law 2381.
- Critics argue the decree allows the government to access these funds for other purposes, creating short-term fiscal relief but long-term structural pressure.
- The controversy centers on whether the decree violates the principle of administrative legality by contradicting a law that states savings should remain in private funds until retirement.
- Professor Iván Camilo Jiménez suggests the measure has technical coherence by having funds support the pension in the regime where the affiliate will retire, but questions the timing in an electoral context.