April 17th, 2020
DECRETO 544

Those agreements whose purpose is the acquisition in the international market of certain goods and devices shall not be governed by the Public Procurement Statute and, consequently, those agreements will follow private law rules.

Therefore, State entities, in the context of the immediacy demanded by the situation, are authorized to directly contract foreign individuals or legal entities that provide the necessary and listed goods or services. Those foreign, individual or legal entities, selling the listed good or devices will not be bound to be domiciled or to have a branch in Colombia, nor they would need to appoint an attorney domiciled in Colombia. 

Decree 499 of 2020 issued on March 31, 2020 released a first list of said goods and devices that can be purchased following private law rules (as those items were also described in Art. 1 of Decree 438 of 2020). 

However, recently, through Decree 544 of 2020 issued on April 13, 2020, the National Government extended in time the public procurement measures adopted by Decree 499 of 2020, including a new list of goods and devices that government agencies can purchase in the international market following private law rules. 

Finally, Decree 544 of 2020 underscore that the legal representative of the contracting entity must send all the information on the contracts entered into to the competent fiscal authority within three (3) days following their execution. 

Decree 544 of 2020
 

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