The Corporation for the Sustainable Development of the Archipelago of San Andrés, Providencia and Santa Catalina (Coralina) signed 1,141 contracts for 42,639 million pesos between the January 23, 2024 and October 16, 2026. The agreements were signed under the command of Quincy Bowie Gordondirector in charge who still appears as the authorizing officer of the expenditure.
This is how it appears recorded in the Electronic Public Procurement System (Secop), documents that were tracked by the Data Unit of this newspaper.
In two years and nine months, The current management has already hired 1,659 million pesos more than the previous one in four years. Between January 1, 2020 and January 22, 2024, under the administration of the entity headed by Arne Britton González 1,551 contracts were signed for 40,980 million pesos.
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The modality and type of hiring during Bowie’s current management are striking: 1,089 were awarded directly (95.4 percent of the total) and 1,030 were as provision of services (90.3 percent of the total).
Quincy Bowie Gordon, director in charge of Coralina Photo:Coraline
The signed contracts were distributed between 442 people and companies. The ten contractors who received the most concentrate 52.9 percent of the valueand 201 of the 442 had already signed with Coralina during the previous Britton administration.
The past October 17during his visit to the archipelago, the president Abelardo De La Espriella mentioned the corporation in a complaint to the governor of San Andrés, Girley Natacha Ordóñez Bowieand the representative to the House, Elizabeth Jay-Pang Diaz. “I am aware of her husband’s business, I am aware of Coralina, I am aware of everything that is being done and I am not going to allow it,” said the president.
In response to the accusations, the governor responded that Coralina has administrative and financial autonomy and that, if they have evidence, the control entities must do their job.
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Coralina’s hiring under the current management
In 2024the first year of the management in charge, Coralina signed 444 contracts for 12,965 million pesos. He 95.7 percent of these were awarded directly and represented 87.5 percent of the disposed value.
The following year, 22,385 million pesos were awarded through 369 contracts. 94.6 percent of them were signed directly.
In 2026with cut-off date of October 16, the corporation has signed 328 contracts for 7,289 million pesos, 31.6 percent less of what was awarded in the same period of the previous year.
Last Coralina contract registered in Secop, dated October 16, 2026 Photo:THE TIME
The total directly contracted amounted 27,102 million pesos (63.6 percent of the awarded value). Of the agreements tracked, 52 were concluded through other modalities. Thus, 40 correspond to a minimum amount and represent 955 million pesos; eight were by abbreviated selection, for 1.3 billion pesos; two for merit contests, for 2,196 million pesos; one for a special regime, for 789 million pesos; and one by public tender for the control of coastal erosion, for 10,298 million pesos.
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The larger contracts
The highest value contract signed during Bowie’s direction is for the works of coastal erosion control in San Andrésby 10,297,831,011 pesos. It was awarded by public tender to Coralina Consortium. That agreement was signed on November 21, 2025 and its supervision was in charge of Interespolones Consortiumfor 761.7 million pesos.
The second was celebrated with the Association of Municipalities of the Coast (Asomucosta) for 3,398,018,231 pesosand was awarded directly. That contract, signed with Coralina in 2023 for the recovery of reefs, is what motivated the Comptroller’s Office to open a fiscal responsibility process for alleged patrimonial detriment.
They are followed by inter-administrative contracts with the Association of Municipalities of the Departments of Córdoba and Sucrefor 1,958 million pesos, and with the Public Alliance for Comprehensive Development (Aldesarrollo)for 1,517 million, both from October 2024. In September 2025, the ICP Studies and Designs Consortium won a merit contest for 1,434 million pesos for the studies and designs of the corporation’s own headquarters.
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The Comptroller’s investigation for the contract with Asomucosta
The contract investigated by the Comptroller’s Office is the CI 494-2023signed on November 22, 2023 during Britton’s administration, for 3,186,976,323 pesos. The resources came from National Environmental Fund (Fonam) and the object was to evaluate the impact of the coral reefs of the archipelago by the stony coral tissue loss disease. According to Secop II, It was executed in 34 daysbetween November 28 and December 31, 2023.
On this morning October 20the comptroller general, Jorge Eliécer Laverdeannounced the opening of a fiscal responsibility process for alleged patrimonial detriment of more than 3,000 million pesos in that project. “The actions of the Comptroller’s Office were carried out by a contract entered into between the Corporation for the Sustainable Development of San Andrés (Coralina) (…) and the Association of Municipalities of the Coast, with resources financed by the National Environmental Fund,” he explained.
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As alleged tax officials servers and former servers were linked who participated in the planning, supervision, execution, control and settlement of the contract, and the legal representative of the association.
The case had already appeared in the Comptroller’s compliance audit of Coralina for the 2023 and 2024 periods. As reported by EL TIEMPO, March 17that audit left 20 administrative findingsof which 8 have fiscal connotations for 4,642 million pesos.
In the reef contract, the agency found disbursements of nearly 3,000 million pesos in items not executed or without support, the payment of biologists that Coralina actually hired and flights and accommodation between the Bahamas and the archipelago that were not planned.
The 2025 contract with Asomucosta, for 3,398 million pesos, It was signed six months before for these findings to become known. Its purpose is a scientific expedition on queen snails and sharks, and it is paid for with the corporation’s own resources.
SABRINA BASTIDAS IGUARAN
DATA UNIT
