Colombia Compra Eficiente updates standard documents for water works

The National Public Procurement Agency Colombia Compra Eficiente adopted version -2- of the standard bidding documents for procurement processes regarding water infrastructure, basic sanitation, and hydraulic structures carried out through public bidding or public bidding under the turnkey scheme. The measure was recorded in Resolution number 546 of 2026, signed in Bogotá on September 14, 2026, by the acting general director Ana María Tolosa Rico and published in the Official Gazette 53,631 on Friday, September 18, 2026. The regulation repeals Resolutions numbers 248 and 249 of 2020 and will apply to selection procedures whose call for bids is published as of March 1, 2027.

The regulatory framework of the update

The authority of Colombia Compra Eficiente to issue mandatory standard documents stems from Decree Law 4170 of 2011 and Article 1 of Law 2022 of 2020, which modified Law 1882 of 2018. The entity justified the update based on the “gap” between the current documents and the regulatory and technical reality of the sector, and the need to consolidate the common rules for public bidding and the turnkey modality into a single instrument.

The fundamental change comes from Decree number 997 of 2026, which modified Decree number 1082 of 2015 regarding sustainable public procurement: the inclusion of environmental and social criteria linked to the contractual object ceased to be optional and became a mandate for scoring schemes and cost-benefit analyses. Added to this is Decree number 0287 of March 19, 2026, regarding affirmative actions for the participation of people with disabilities in the public procurement system.

The project was published for 31 calendar days on the Agency’s website and in the Single Public Consultation System (Sucop) between June 12 and July 13, 2026. The Superintendency of Industry and Commerce, through official letter filing number 26-289518-5-01 of August 10, 2026, opined that the design of the standard bidding documents does not unduly restrict free competition, although it requested that entities maintain “the broadest participation conditions.”

What version -2- incorporates

• Mandatory socio-environmental criteria, with a specific Form 12 for environmental and social criteria.
• A new Chapter 9 in Matrix 1 – Experience, dedicated to hydraulic structures for the management, conveyance, capture, and storage of raw or potable water.
• A chapter for projects focused on the care, prevention, and mitigation of emergencies caused by natural, biosanitary, or technological events.
• Adjustments to the enabling requirements for technical, legal, financial, and organizational capacity, calculated using sector financial information as of December 31, 2025.
• Strengthening of Annex 5 – Glossary and a Form 8 for employers, ventures, and companies of people with disabilities, featuring additional points and differential requirements.

The adopted package comprises the base document of the standard bidding terms, five annexes (technical, schedule, transparency pact, contract draft, and glossary), fourteen forms, four matrices, and an official budget form.

Rules for entities and entry into force

Standard documents are mandatory and unalterable for entities subject to the General Contracting Statute, which may only modify them in expressly permitted aspects. If the contractual object includes additional works, goods, or services, the entity may replace a maximum of one secondary activity and may not require more than three activities in total, including the primary one.

The resolution also prohibits requesting experience exclusively with state entities, prior experience in a specific territory, time-limited experience, or experience with determined work volumes, and orders the classification of experience only up to the third level of the Goods and Services Classifier. Implementation was agreed upon with technical entities such as the Ministry of Housing, City and Territory, the UAESP, Aguas del Magdalena, EMPODUITAMA S.A. ESP, EMPSA ESP, and the District Secretariat of Habitat of Bogotá, among others, in a virtual working group on August 4, 2026.

The update requires construction companies, supervisors, and territorial entities in the sector to familiarize themselves with a unified document and new socio-environmental scoring factors before March 2027. The Agency announced socialization meetings and training spaces for participants in the public procurement system, so that the adaptation margin of each process does not result in restrictive participation conditions.

Source: Official Gazette, No. 53.631, Friday, September 18, 2026, Special Administrative Units, p. 1 (official reference: Resolution number 546 of 2026).