Less than three weeks before the government of President Gustavo Petro expires, from different political sides, analysts and media have begun to take stock of what was the first left-wing administration in the recent history of the country.
To the sectors of security, peace, health, and economy, the entities that ended with a negative balance have just been joined by the Unit for Comprehensive Care and Reparation for Victims, responsible, no more and no less, for coordinating the assistance, care, and reparation measures granted by the State to repair those affected by the armed conflict.
The mission was to continue compensating the victims, who during Petro’s four-year term, added 1,796,897 new registrations and more than 500 additional collective reparation subjects. For this, an annual budget of about 4.9 trillion pesos was assigned.
And although the bet was on ‘total peace’ to reduce the intensity of the conflict and on an action plan to accelerate compensation payments, both failed.
The million-dollar backlog
Eight days ago, the president-elect, Abelardo De La Espriella, announced the elimination of advisory councils and agencies of the Presidency —to avoid “duplication of functions and waste”—, among these, two that work hand in hand with the Unit for Victims: the Advisory Council for National Reconciliation and that of Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law, whose functions will be assumed by the Ministries of the Interior, Defense, and Foreign Affairs.
Both work closely with the Unit for Victims, which was in charge of Gloria Cuartas until 2025 and is now in the hands of Alix Dunieka Aguilar Tirado and whose fate the new government has yet to define.
The fact is that if the cuts continue based on results, the most recent report from the General Comptroller’s Office does not favor that Unit. According to the control entity, at the current pace, it will take 62 years or more to compensate all the victims of the armed conflict.
In total, 1,955,481 people have been compensated, which has meant an investment of 15.9 trillion pesos, compared to the more than ten million victims currently recognized. And although not all the responsibility for that state debt falls on the outgoing government, the financial audit of the entity for the 2025 fiscal year revealed 23 administrative findings, several of them with presumed disciplinary impact and one fiscal for more than 33 billion pesos, related to behaviors ranging from the lack of records supporting the delivery of goods to victims, to the non-publication of documents of million-dollar contractual processes carried out.
Inheritance for Abelardo
In fact, the control entity rated the financial statements of the entity as negative, explaining that the numbers do not present the accounting situation for 2025 and that the sum of the inaccuracies amounts to 212 billion pesos.
And, as has happened in other sectors, in the case of the Unit for Victims it is also noted that there will be a transfer of obligations to the next fiscal year, which the De La Espriella government will receive.
“From the analysis carried out, it was established that the insufficiency of the Annual Monthly Cash Program at the close of the 2025 fiscal year directly affected the constitution of budget reserves induced by $2,001,613,387,080, a situation that caused the transfer of obligations to the next fiscal year and contributed to the increase of the entity’s budget backlog,” the report warns.
Cases in data
In addition to the budget backlog, the Comptroller’s Office made a fiscal finding for 33 billion pesos in which it warned about the lack of records in the delivery of goods to victims.
According to the report, the Dian reported the delivery of goods as donations to the Unit for Victims, between October and December of last year, amounting to more than 60 billion pesos.
However, the entity did not make the accounting record of the goods received, according to its financial statements.
On April 28, a working table was held with the entity to verify the delivery of donations to the beneficiaries, but they stated that there were still items in the warehouse.
And regarding those already delivered, the Comptroller’s Office pointed out that some of the folders containing the donation information are incomplete, due to a process of reconstructing the files: “There are files that do not contain the delivery records to the final beneficiaries of the assigned donations.”
The case draws attention because in Social Prosperity several Dian donations were distributed during the electoral period.
The entity responded to the Comptroller’s finding explaining that the information provided to the audit team corresponded to the supports available at the time of the request.
They also assured that the points raised by the audit team are explained by administrative files in the process of organization, documentary supports in the process of collection from territorial and national directorates, and ongoing validations to guarantee traceability between reception, storage, and effective delivery to beneficiaries.
And they pointed out that before the audit process, the entity structured and began executing a work plan to validate the delivery of donations, reconstruct and complete the missing documentary files.
In fact, they say they are taking measures to standardize documentary supports and strengthen controls in document and inventory management.
But the Comptroller’s Office assured in the report that there are inconsistencies between the records and the physical reality of the inventories. And they explained that in the case of donations, not even evidence in videos, photographs, or reports accrediting the destination of the goods was sent to the Dian.
Of the 60 billion in goods donated by the Dian, 33 billion do not have delivery support to the beneficiaries, which according to the Comptroller constitutes a risk of loss.
(Consult all articles from EL TIEMPO’s Investigative Unit here)
The fiscal entity also analyzed the entity’s contractual processes for the 2023 to 2025 periods, some of which were uploaded late to platforms. Now, the entity will have to submit an improvement plan with corrective actions based on the findings.
INVESTIGATIVE UNIT
u.investigativa@eltiempo.com
@UinvestigativaET
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