TITLE X. On the Control Organisms
Chapter I. On the Office of Controller General of the Republic
Article 267
Fiscal control is a public function to be exercised by the Office of the Controller General of the Republic, which oversees the fiscal management of the administration and of individuals or entities that manage funds or assets of the Nation.
Control shall be exercised in subsequent and selective form according to the procedures, systems, and principles established by statute. However, an Act may authorize, in special cases, oversight be performed by Colombian private enterprises selected on the basis of public competition according to merit and contracted in accordance with the opinion of the Council of State.
Oversight of the fiscal management of the State includes exercising financial control, management, and performance, based on efficiency, economy, equality, and appraising the environmental costs. In exceptional cases as specified by statute, the Office of the Controller General may exercise subsequent control over the accounts of any territorial entity.
The Office of the Controller is an entity of a technical nature with administrative and budgetary autonomy. It does not have administrative functions other than those inherent in its own organization.
The Controller will be elected by the Congress in Plenary Session, by an absolute majority, during the first month of sessions for a period equal to that of the President of the Republic, from a list chosen according to a public call on the basis of the provisions of Article 126 of the Constitution and cannot be reelected or continue in exercising functions at the end of the term.
Only Congress can accept a resignation made by the Controller and provide for the absolute or temporary gaps of the office.
To be elected Controller General of the Republic, it is required that one be Colombian by birth and hold active citizenship, be more than 35 years of age; and have a university degree or have been a university professor for at least 5 years; and to demonstrate additional qualities required by statute.
A person may not be elected Controller General if he/she is or has been a member of Congress or has occupied any public office at a national level, except for teaching, during the year immediately preceding the election. Neither may he/she be elected if he/she has been sentenced to imprisonment for common offenses.
In no case may anyone intervene in the vetting of candidates or the election of Controller General who is kin to the candidates to the fourth level of consanguinity, the second level of affinity or the first civil or legal level.
Article 268
The Controller General of the Republic has the following powers:
- To prescribe the methods and form for those responsible for managing funds or assets of the nation to render accounts; to establish criteria for financial and operational evaluation and the evaluation of the results which have to be followed.
- To review and close the accounts that must be kept by those responsible for public funds and to determine how efficiently, effectively, and economically they have worked.
- To keep a record of the public debt of the Nation and of its territorial entities.
- To require reports on their fiscal management from official employees at any level and from any person or public or private entity that administers the funds or assets of the Nation.
- To establish responsibility derived from fiscal management, to impose financial sanctions as the case may be, to collect their sum, and to exercise coercive jurisdiction over the balances deducted therefrom.
- To establish the quality and efficiency of internal fiscal control of the entities and organs of the State.
- To present to the Congress of the Republic an annual report on the state of natural resources and of the environment.
- To initiate before the competent authorities, providing respective evidence, penal or disciplinary investigations against anyone who has harmed the patrimonial interests of the State. Under its responsibility, the Office of the Controller may demand, having learned the truth and acted in good faith, the immediate suspension of officials while investigations or appropriate penal or disciplinary proceedings are being completed.
- To present government bills concerning the system of fiscal control and the organization and functioning of the Office of the Controller General.
- To fill jobs on his/her staff that have been created by an Act, through public competition. An Act shall establish a special system of administrative careers through the selection, promotion and retirement of officials of the Office of the Controller. Those who form part of the bodies that are involved in the application and election of the Controller are prohibited from providing personal and political recommendations for jobs in his/her office.
- To present information to Congress and to the President of the Republic concerning the carrying out of his/her functions and certification concerning the situation of the finances of the State, in accordance with an Act.
- To issue general rules for harmonizing the systems of fiscal control of all public entities at national and territorial levels.
- Other matters as specified by statute.
To present to the House of Representatives the General Audit of the Budget and of the Treasury and to certify the balance in the public Exchequer presented to Congress by the Controller General.
Article 269
In the public entities, the appropriate authorities are obliged to plan and implement projects, depending on the nature of their functions, methods, and procedures of internal control, in accordance with the provisions of the relevant statute which may stipulate exceptions and authorize the contracting for said services with private Colombian enterprises.
Article 270
An Act shall organize the forms and systems of citizen participation making it possible to oversee the public management completed at the various administrative levels and their results.
Article 271
The results of the preliminary inquiries undertaken by the Office of the Controller shall count as evidence before the Office of the Attorney General of the Nation and the competent judge.
Article 272
The oversight of the fiscal administration of the departments, districts, and municipalities where there exist controller’s offices are the jurisdiction thereof and shall be exercised in subsequent and selective form.
The oversight of municipalities is incumbent on the departmental controller’s offices, except for what an Act stipulates concerning the municipal controller’s offices.
It is the responsibility of the assemblies and of the district and municipal councils to organize the respective controller’s offices as technical entities endowed with administrative and budgetary autonomy.
The Controllers of departments, districts, and municipalities will be elected by the Departmental Assemblies, Municipal and District Councils, through public call made according to the law, following the principles of transparency, publicity, objectivity, citizen participation, and equality of gender, for a period equal to that of the Governor or Mayor, according to each case.
No controller may be reelected for the period immediately following his/her term.
Departmental, district, and municipal controllers shall exercise, within the scope of their jurisdiction, the functions assigned to the Controller General of the Republic in Article 268 and may, based on authorization by statute, contract with private Colombian enterprises for the exercise of fiscal oversight.
In order to be elected departmental, district, or municipal controller, the candidate must be Colombian by birth, a citizen in good standing, be over 25 years old, hold a university degree, and have the other qualifications stipulated by statute.
Whoever is or was in the prior year member of the Assembly or Council that must make the election cannot be elected, nor whoever occupied the public office at the executive level in the department, district, or municipality.
Whoever has occupied the position of departmental, district, or municipal controller may not hold any official position in the same department, district, or municipality, nor be registered as a candidate for popularly-elected office except a year after termination of his/her previous functions.
Article 273
At the request of any of the proponents, the Controller General of the Republic and other competent authorities of fiscal control shall order that any award of a bid be conferred in public.
The cases in which the mechanism of public awards are made and the manner in which the proposals and the conditions under which they are realized shall be stipulated by statute.
Article 274
The oversight of the fiscal management of the Office of the Controller of the Republic shall be exercised by an auditor elected for terms of two years by the Council of State from a list originating from the Supreme Court of Justice.
An Act shall determine the manner of exercising said oversight at the departmental, district, and municipal level.
Chapter II. On the Public Ministry
Article 275
The General Prosecutor of the Nation is the supreme director of the Public Ministry.
Article 276
The General Prosecutor of the Republic shall be elected by the Senate for a period of four years from a list made up of candidates selected by the President of the Republic, the Supreme Court of Justice, and the Council of State.
Article 277
The General Prosecutor of the Nation, by himself/herself or through his/her delegates and agents, shall have the following functions:
- To oversee the execution of the Constitution, the statutes, judicial decisions, and administrative decrees.
- To protect human rights and insure their effectiveness, with the assistance of the Ombudsman.
- To defend the interests of society.
- To defend the collective interests, especially the environment.
- To oversee the diligent and efficient exercise of administrative functions.
- To oversee at the highest level the official conduct of those who hold public office, including those popularly elected; exercise on a preferential basis the disciplinary authority; initiate the appropriate investigations and impose the appropriate sanctions in accordance with the relevant statute.
- To intervene in the processes and before the judicial or administrative authorities when it becomes necessary to defend the legal order, the public domain, or fundamental rights and guaranties.
- To provide an annual report of his/her administration to Congress.
- To demand from public officials and individuals the information that he/she considers necessary.
- Other matters stipulated by statute.
For the exercise of its functions, the Office of the Public Prosecutor shall have powers of judicial policy and shall be authorized to take the measures that it considers necessary.
Article 278
The General Prosecutor of the Nation shall exercise the following functions directly:
- Discharge from office, following a hearing and on the basis of justified reasons, any public officials who are guilty of any of the following deficiencies: violating the Constitution or the laws in an obvious manner; deriving obvious and profitable material advantage from the exercise of their duties or functions; impeding in serious manner investigations carried out by the Office of the Public Prosecutor or by an administrative or juridical authority; performing with obvious carelessness the investigation and sanctioning of the disciplinary deficiencies of employees under their authority or in the denunciation of punishable occurrences that they have cognizance of by virtue of exercising their office.
- Issue proposals in the disciplinary processes pressed against officials subject to special statutes.
- Present government bills relating to matters under his/her jurisdiction.
- Exhort Congress to pass laws that insure the promotion, exercise, and protection of human rights and demand their execution from the competent authorities.
- Make proposals concerning the processes of constitutional control.
- Appoint and remove, in accordance with an Act, officials and employees under his/her jurisdiction.
Article 279
An Act shall determine matters relative to the structure and functioning of the Office of the General Prosecutor of the Nation, shall regulate matters relating to the employment and competitive examinations and to retirement from the service, to disqualifications and incompatibilities, designation, qualifications, compensation, and the disciplinary regime of all the officials and employees of said organization.
Article 280
The agents of the Public Ministry shall have the same qualifications, classification, compensation, rights, and benefits as the magistrates and judges of the hierarchy before whom they exercise their responsibility.
Article 281
The Ombudsman will carry out functions in an autonomous manner. The officeholder will be elected by the House of Representatives for an institutional period of four years from a short-list created by the President of the Republic.
Article 282
The Ombudsman shall oversee the promotion, exercise, and publicizing of human rights for which purpose he/she shall exercise the following functions:
- Guiding and instructing the inhabitants of the national territory and Colombians abroad in the exercise and defense of their rights before the competent authorities or private entities.
- Publicizing human rights and recommending policies for making them known.
- Invoking the right of habeas corpus and engaging in protective action without prejudice to the right of interested parties.
- Organizing and directing the public defense counsel in the conditions stipulated by statute.
- Mediating popular measures in matters falling under his/her jurisdiction.
- Presenting proposed bills on matters falling under his/her jurisdiction.
- Making reports to Congress on the exercise of his/her functions.
- Other matters stipulated by statute.
Article 283
The law will determine issues related to the organization and functioning of the Ombudsman as an autonomous body, administratively and financially.
Article 284
Except in the cases provided in the Constitution and the statute, the General Prosecutor of the Nation and Ombudsman shall be able to request from the authorities the information necessary for the exercise of their functions without any objection possible on any grounds.
