Asocajas highlights the unconstitutionality of the 'absolute' functions of the Supersubsidy

The National Association of Family Compensation Funds (Asocajas) highlighted the decision adopted by the Constitutional Court through Sentence C-298 of 2025, which declares the unconstitutionality, with deferred effects, of sections 20, 22 and 23 of article 7 of Decree Law 2150 of 1992, which regulates the Family Subsidy Superintendent.

Asocajas asserts that these provisions, declared contrary to the Constitution , granted indeterminate and absolute powers to the Superintendent of Family Subsidy to adopt administrative intervention measures with respect to the compensation funds under its supervision, the imposition of fines, as well as special surveillance measures and intervention in the affiliation processes.

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Therefore, " this is a decision of the utmost importance for the sector, as it seeks to guarantee the adequate and balanced exercise of the inspection, surveillance, control and sanctioning functions over the Compensation Funds by the Family Subsidy Superintendency ," said Adriana Guillén Arango, executive president of Asocajas .

The union also highlighted the following:

- The Plenary Chamber considered that precautionary and punitive measures are legitimate instruments for fulfilling constitutionally relevant purposes; however, pursuant to the principle of the confidentiality of the law, general, clear, and objective guidelines must be established to adequately direct the exercise of regulatory authority and define the minimum content for the exercise of inspection, surveillance, and oversight functions by the Family Allowance Superintendency " without incurring insurmountable uncertainty ."

- The ruling deferred the effect of the rules declared unconstitutional, seeking to ensure the purposes of the inspection, surveillance, and oversight functions within the Family Allowance System ; to this end, it ordered the Congress of the Republic , within two legislative terms, to issue a law containing the comprehensive system of administrative interventions by the Family Allowance Superintendency, including the relationship and differentiation between sanctions and precautionary measures, and incorporating " the essential contents established in the ruling ."

The union believes that while the effect of unconstitutionality is deferred, this does not mean that these measures can continue to be applied in the same way to specific cases , in order to guarantee the principle of normative supremacy of the Constitution, a fundamental pillar of the social rule of law.

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This is how, in the face of particular and concrete cases, Asocajas trusts that, from now on, the Superintendency will find in the sentence, a " substantial reference that ensures the principle of legal reserve " and, at the same time, will guarantee its supervised organizations the materiality of the due administrative process that, in relation to the interventions carried out to date, have not had -in the words of the Court- " an updated and certain legal framework " nor " an adequate satisfaction of the minimum guarantees of the right to due process ", for this it must integrate the guiding principles of the general and sanctioning procedure, recognized at the conventional, constitutional and jurisprudential level, together with what is provided in a general and residual manner in the Code of Administrative Procedure and of Administrative Litigation .

Now, regarding the compensation funds with current measures, it is necessary to call for a respectful review of these measures in light of the rules of administrative due process. Consequently, it is necessary to assess, from a constitutional perspective, whether it is justifiable to maintain indefinite interventions stemming from precautionary measures; extensions of measures for reasons other than those that gave rise to them; and the responsibility of intervening agents for the lack of definition of the measures; all of this as a consequence of the regulatory gaps criticized by the Constitutional Court.

" This ruling opens an opportunity to build, with Congress and the Superintendency, a legitimate, efficient, and up-to-date legal framework that ensures both proper oversight and the protection of the funds and the millions of workers who benefit from the system ," said the union's executive president.

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