Fighting Cartels in Colombian Public Procurement

This article describes the way in which two global projects –that of the fight against corruption and that of the fight against business cartels– have been amalgamated in the Colombian context. The result of this amalgam is the idea that business cartels in state procurement are anti-competitive acts, but above all, corrupt acts. Along with this idea, this amalgam has led the Colombian competition authority to end up exercising vigilance and control over state contracting along with other authorities established to do so. However, this amalgam becomes problematic to the extent that competition law was not conceived to fight against corruption. The article concludes by showing three particular instances that demonstrate the limitations of the Colombian competition law to fight against corruption in public procurement.