Colombia: De la Espriella attacks public payroll and threatens worker stability

Published at: 08/09/2026 09:24 AM

The president of Colombia, Abelardo De la Espriella, unleashed a strong wave of rejection after announcing an aggressive plan of cuts and budget snips on the State, bringing the number of civil servants active in the various branches of the State to more than 1.4 million.

According to the balance sheet presented by the Administrative Department of the Public Service as of the year 2026, the country has a total of 1 million 422 thousand 061 public servants. The official report specifies that the Executive Branch of the Government accounts for the largest proportion of the state's payroll, encompassing 957 thousand 359 workers.

The breakdown of the organization indicates that, within the National Executive, the security and defense sector attached to the Ministry of Defense brings together 417,013 uniformed personnel, while the educational area under the Ministry of Education totals 338,623 teachers. The remaining 201 thousand 723 positions correspond to public employees in the central and decentralized administration.

Faced with this scenario, De la Espriella questioned the financial sustainability of the current government structure and raised the need to apply budgetary reductions, arguing that “the size of the public administration is not sustainable” in the face of the fiscal deficit and advocating workers' compensation schemes for those leaving the public sector.

The debate surrounding the dimension of the state apparatus is embedded in discussions about the national budget and the fiscal rule, in a context where economic analysts and political sectors evaluate the institutional room for maneuver to optimize administrative functioning without compromising the provision of basic services to citizens.

Mazo News Team