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Article 59.- The supervision of the fiscal management of the administration is under the Comptroller General of the Republic and shall be exercised in accordance with the law.
The Office of the Comptroller shall not exercise administrative functions different from those pertaining to its own organization.
The Comptroller General of the Republic shall be elected for periods of four years (04) by the House of Representatives.
In order to be elected, the Comptroller General of the Republic must be a Colombian by birth and by citizenship; be more than 35 years of age; have a university degree in law or economic or business studies. Besides, he should have held a post either as an inhouse or a Minister, Magistrate of the Supreme Court of Justice, Counsellor of State, Comptroller General of the Republic or have been a member of the National Congress for at least four (04) years, or university professor in the posts of Juridical or economic sciences for a period of not less than five (05) years. (Article 7 of the Legislative Act No. 1 of 1968).
Article 60.- The Comptroller General shall have the following functions;
1. To maintain the account books of the State’s public debt.
2. To lay down the accountancy methods of the National Administration and of its decentralized entities and the manner of rendering accounts by those responsible for the management of national funds or assets.
3. To demand reports from national, departmental or municipal public employees on their fiscal management.
4. To revise and close the accounts of those accountable for public finance.
5. Provide employment for their branches which the law might have created, and
6. Other things laid down by law (Article 8 of the Legislative Act No. 1 of 1968).
Article 102 numeral 2
It is the special power of the House of Representatives to elect the Comptroller General of the Republic.
Article 113.- Each year, the Comptroller General of the Republic shall inform in detail on the weighted average percentage of changes taking place during the preceding year in the remuneration of the Government servants.
The salaries and the expenditures of the representation of Congress members shall vary in the same way and in the same percentage from January 1984, in accordance with the report which the Comptroller General submits on the changes which have taken place in the remunerations of the employees in the preceding year (Art. 1 of the Legislative Act No. 2 of 1983).
Article 76. Temporary Articles
a) The law shall determine which organization will be responsible for maintaining the general public accounts of the Nation. Meanwhile the Office of the Comptroller shall look after the same.
b) The Supreme Court of Justice, shall appoint four Magistrates from the Constitutional Division, until the law modifies the number; meanwhile it shall continue exercising constitutional control in the way it has been doing in the past.
c) The Government is authorised to take the necessary administrative measures for the establishment of the services of the Constitutional Division of the Supreme Court of Justice, and to issue, if the law does not do so, rules relating to its functioning and procedures for the study and dispatch of the matters under it.
d) During the recess of the Congress, the allocations/allowances of its members shall be the same as fixed by Law 20 of 1966, until the law specifies others.
e) For all purposes the census of population of 1964 stands approved.
Article 6.- The Comptroller General shall have exclusive authority in all matters relating to inspection, comments and closing of accounts of officials or employees in charge of receiving, paying and safeguarding the funds and assets of the Nation, to the inspection and revision of all the debts and claims, of any kind, in the charge of or in favor of the Republic, deriving from the passive and active administration of the National Treasury, and in all matters relating to methods of accountancy and to the manner of keeping the accounts of the Nation, the maintenance of documents and the inspection and inquiry into the books, registers and documents referring to the said accounts. What is laid down in this article does not stop administrative officials from demanding from their subordinates the reports and accounts that they might have and making their observations which would be conducive to good functioning.
Article 10. He shall keep the general accounts of the Nation, including those related to the public debt.
Article 13.- He shall also prescribe the form of the account books, the receipts, the vouchers and all those documents which might refer to the receipt or disbursement of funds, as well as any kinds of forms related with the accounts of employees or officials of the Republic.
Article 47.- All expenditure from public funds carried out in the city of Bogota, shall be made through pay orders made under the charge of the Treasurer General of the Republic and issued, either directly in favour of the creditor, or the payer employed official. The pay orders made directly in favour of a creditor of the Government should carry the written statement saying Final Order, and those which are issued in favour of an official payer, should say: Advance for official expenditure.
Article 48.- Payments to creditors shall be made only through the approval of the respective account or payroll by the Minister or relevant Head of Office, or duly authorized person.
Article 49.- No order shall be paid by the National Treasurer, nor written as payable by a depository of Government funds, nor shall it be valid, until countersigned by the Comptroller General, or by some employee of the Auditor’s Department, duly authorized for the purpose.
Article 50.- The orders under the charge of the Treasury of the Nation will be issued by the Minister or by the Head of Office who can arrange either for the appropriation of funds against which the orders are drawn, or by the subordinate assigned for the purpose.
Article 51.- The funds which the officials receive as advance payments for official expenditure shall be invested according to the rules which the Comptroller General lays down.
Article 52.- All payments, advances or transfers of public funds which the officials or employees or the Government make and which have to be realised out of the city of Bogota shall be subject to the provisions specified by the Comptroller.
Article 6.- The accountancy system which the Comptroller should set up in order to show the financial system of the Nation, shall be of such a nature that can indicate at any given time the stock of money and other resources available to meet the obligations of the common fund different from the loans and other special funds which the law provides for. The money and other resources of the common fund will not be used to meet the obligations of any other fund, nor the money and resources of other funds to attend to the obligations of the common fund.
Article 7.- In each Ministry there shall be an official for Budgeting and Accounting. This employee will have directly under his charge the books and registers of the budget and accounting of the Ministry, and sufficient personnel for the same. He shall keep the Minister informed daily on the state of the budget and other accounts of the Ministry, of the legal provisions which refer to annual appropriations and of all the expenditure which were proposed in the Ministry not in accordance with the law and its regulations; he will be directly responsible before the Ministry for the manner of keeping the books, records and accounts in accordance with the law and its regulations, as well as for the preparation, under the direction of the Minister, of the expenditure budgets which the Minister of Finance and Public Credit might require for the preparation of the annual law of appropriations and of the presentation of any other report or official account which the relevant Minister asks for.
Article 12.- Except what is agreed against by contract, all the bonds and coupons paid due to capital and interest of the public debt, shall be cancelled and incinerated by order and under the direction of persons and institutions who made the payment. These persons and institutions shall send to the Auditor’s Department minutes on the incineration authorized by a Notary, accompanied by an authenticated list which indicates the title, nominal value and the series and numbers of coupons also paid and cancelled. If the bonds and coupons are paid and cancelled in Bogota by a fiscal representative of the Government, the act of incineration of cancelled bonds and coupons will be witnessed by a representative of the Auditor’s Department. Nevertheless, if the National government, as a guarantor of the principal amount and interest of any bonds issue is made to honour the guarantee, the bonds and coupons redeemed in this manner will not be burnt, instead they shall be deposited in the National Treasury as a proof of the debt which the issuing entity of the said bonds holds with the National Government. This debt will be written down in the books of the Comptroller’s Department.
The copy of the notary’s proceedings and the authenticated list of incinerated bonds and coupons, referred to earlier, shall serve as a basis to make entries in the books of the Auditor the bonds and coupons included in the said proceedings and lists.
All the paid and cancelled bonds and coupons which are presently found in the archives of the Comptroller General’s Department, except those excluded above, shall be burnt. In the Comptroller General’s Department there will be an archive of the notary’s proceedings and the act of incineration and an authenticated list of titles, numbers etc., of these incinerated bonds and coupons.
Article 31.- During the course of each month, the Comptroller General shall give to the President a report on the financial situation of the National Government of the preceding month. The form and details of this statement shall be such that clearly reflects the financial operations of the National Government as well as its fiscal situation when the period to which it refers expires. A copy of the report shall be sent to the Minister of Finance and Public Credit (See Decree 1324 of 1932).
Article 32.- As soon as it is possible, between the 31st of March and the 1st of July of each year, the Comptroller General shall prepare an annual report on the financial operations of the National Government in the fiscal year immediately preceding, accompanied by reports and diagrams which show the fiscal situation when the year ends. This report will be printed and submitted for the consideration of the President of the Republic and Congress. In it the Comptroller General can make recommendations designed to obtain greater economy and efficiency in public expenditure or legal measures which it deems convenient to propose for the collection, disbursement and application of public funds and on the inspection of accounts.
The Comptroller General shall submit the rest of the reports on the progress of the Department of Audit which the President, the Minister of Finance and Public Credit and Congress desire.
Article 35.- No report, accounts or official data on the situation and financial operations of the National Government can originate from an office other than that of the Department of the Comptroller General, unless before its publication it has come to an agreement with the respective registers of the said Department.
Article 1.- The monthly report which, in accordance with article 31 of Decree No. 911 of 1932, the Comptroller has to submit shall consist of the following points:
a) Statement about the generation of incomes of the months gone by of the current year.
b) Statement by Ministries of the drafts made through final and advance payment orders and of the authorizations endorsed for expenditure out of the capital;
c) Statement by Ministries and Administrative Departments of the reserves for the contracts and orders attributed to the current period.
d) Statement on the state of commitments taken up by the Government in the form of short term loans with national and foreign organizations; and
e) A balance sheet of the earlier points, which expresses as accurately as possible the fiscal situation and that of the treasury of the period that the report refers to.
Article 1.- The Comptroller General shall have the exclusive authority in all matters referring to the inspection, annotations, and evaluation of accounts of officials or employees, contractors and functionaries of the Government in charge of receiving, collecting, paying for and looking after the funds and goods of the Nation; relating to the inspection and revision of all the debts and claims of any nature chargeable to or in favour of the Nation, arising form the active and passive administration of the Treasury; and in all matters relating to the methods of accountancy and the manner of keeping accounts, the formulation and requirements of documents of proof and the inspection and examination of books, registers, and documents referring to the said accounts. The reports and accounts that the administration’s employees demand from their subordinates are of an absolutely administrative character and in no way reduce the exclusive powers of the Comptroller General as regards fiscal control.
Article 118.- The income yield will be accounted on the basis of its authentification and corresponds to the fiscal year in which this is generated. Authentification refers to the act of liquidating or determining the quantity that should be received by way of taxes or any other income or capital resource.
Article 122.- The appropriations included in the Budget are authorizations that the Congress gives to the Government and expire on the 31st of December of each year. After that date the appropriations of that year cannot be added to, nor transferred, nor counter credited. As a result, the balance from the agreements of obligations and the agreements of ordering of expenditure which might not have been utilised on the same date also expire.
In order to attend to the payment of the obligations contracted by the Government before the 31st of December, and pending on that date, chargeable to the appropriations of the National Budget corresponding to the fiscal year which ends on that day, the Director General of Budgets will reserve appropriations while liquidating the fiscal year, and these will be accounted for as current liabilities in the Treasury Budget. The accounting of the reserves of appropriations will be done once the Comptroller General’s Department has qualified as legal the respective obligations; in such cases, reserves of appropriations can only be accounted for on account of the following concepts:
1) In order to cover contractual commitments, which would have been kept pending for payment on the 31st of December of the respective fiscal year till the concurrence of the balance of appropriation, in case the latter is not greater than the value of the respective contract.
2) In order to attend to the obligations pending for payment on the 31st of December in the offices of operations, which those accountable might have brought to the notice of the Director General of Budgets before the 31st of January of the following year, and which might have been contracted on the basis of draft orders for expenditure which the Government might have issued, which the General Board of Budgets might have accounted for and which the Audit Department might have endorsed before the end of the year. Before the date prescribed by rules, the Director General of Budget should have a complete report of the obligations received, examined by the Ministries and Administrative Departments.
3) In order to attend to the servicing of the National Public Debt.
4) For payment obligations with credit resources, till the quantity of funds available or of balances not entered when the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit - Director General of Public Credit - so determines, since the entry of the resource is guaranteed.
5) In order to attend to the obligations under the charge of appropriations like personal services, transport and communications expenditure, public services and social security.
Article 29.- The Office of the Comptroller General shall lay down the accounting methods and statutes for the records of funds and national assets, shall maintain the classification of fiscal assets, the balance sheet of the Finance Ministry and National Treasury; and the National Budget, establishing a nomenclature of accounts in accordance with the Constitution and the organic laws of the Budget.
Article 30.- The accounting methods meant for recording the operations from fiscal management, from the authentification of incomes incorporated in the budget and from the public authorized expenditure, shall also note the origen, formation, utilization and results of the National Treasury, as an integral part of the National Finance, and besides, will preserve for this purpose the separation from those meant for the records of fiscal assets.
Article 31.- The methods of accounting meant for recording the operations which the State carries out through decentralised entities, shall be established taking into account the principles which inspire the objectives of services and of economic and financial activities of each one of these governmental entities. In the formation of the asset stock of the state, the respective goods will be incorporated into the general balance of the group of accounts destined for the balance sheet of the Finance Ministry.
Article 32.- The decentralized entities of a national character shall send their financial status reports to the Office of the Comptroller General with the details and periods which the Comptroller points out for the purposes of consolidating budgetary and financial operations in the accounting of the State.
Article 33.- The record of the movement of operations shall close at the end of each fiscal year. After this date there can only be closing entries for the preparation of balance sheets.
Article 34.- The balance sheet of the Nation which is cut off on the 31st of December, which the Comptroller presents to Congress in keeping with the Constitution, together with the annual financial report, shall show the deficit or fiscal surplus and consists of:
a) The Treasury Balance: The balance from accounts of current assets, as against the balances from accounts of current liabilities;
b) Balance of the Ministry of Finance: The balances of the other accounts of assets as against the balances of other accounts of liabilities and the national asset stock. The balance sheet will carry as annexures details of all other accounts on which it is based.
Article 35.- The financial report that the Comptroller General should submit shall adjust to the norms of the organic law of the budget.
Article 36.- The general account of the budget and the treasury which in keeping with the Constitution, the Comptroller is obliged to submit to the House of Representatives, shall be duly examined and backed up by all the appropriate records which harmonize and give it an air of certainty and allow one to establish in all its phases evidence of its financial and asset stock related results.
Article 38.- For the purposes of accounting the public debt, the contracts which oblige the State to carry out payments in future budgetary operations, like those of supply of goods, lending of services, construction of public works and whose financing by suppliers and contractors has been authorized by special laws, shall be considered part of the said debt.
The documents recording the contracts shall need the endorsement of the Comptroller and shall be accounted as public debt once they are endorsed.
Article 51.- The general account of the budget and the treasury shall have the following aspects:
1. States which show in detail the actual generation of income and capital resources entered during the period whose account is submitted, with indications of the calculation of each item /head, and the respective increases and reductions of the budgetary calculations.
2. Results of the execution of the law of appropriations, detailed by ministries and administrative departments, with chapters, programmes, sub programmes, drafts and articles, presenting in a comparative way the initial quantity voted for by Congress for each appropriation, the amount of additions, the counter credits, the total of appropriations, the amount of proven expenditure, that of the reserves constituted by the Comptroller on the termination of the exercise, the total of expenditure and reserves for each article, and the surplus quantity.
3. The comparative situation of the incomes and capital resources and the expenditure and budgeted reserves for the fiscal year in which the actual generation of income is globally shown, that of the loans, the amount of expenditure and reserves; and the surplus or deficit which would have resulted as from the implementation of the budget. In accordance with the methods that the Comptroller lays down, this information should be presented also in the form that allows one to distinguish the effect of credit on the financing of the budget.
4. The state of the national public debt at the end of the fiscal year, with classifications of internal and external debt, details of loans, quantity issued, capital paid off during the year, amount of amortization created, paid and owed, balance and circulation at the end of the term, amount of interests created, paid and pending, and commissions and other costs paid.
5. Balance Sheet of the Nation in the form prescribed by article 34 of this law.
6. Detailed report of the costs paid during the fiscal year whose account is submitted, chargeable to the reserves of the immediately preceding term, and
7. The recommendations that the Comptroller sees fit to present to the Government and to the House on the above mentioned general account.
Article 64.- The Comptroller shall impose fines to the maximum of one (I) month’s remuneration, for each period in which the one responsible for accounts does not duly present the accounts under his charge.
Article 7.- The Entities subject to the fiscal vigilance of the Comptroller General cannot contract outside services for drawing up manuals of accounting methods and fiscal control, without the prior authorization of the Comptroller General.
Article 9.- The Comptroller shall register, for the purposes of the consolidation of the general accountancy of the Nation, the operations which the national administration and its decentralized entities carry out. The register as well as the consolidation of the general accounts of the Nation shall be made through the application of technical systems of accounting which the Comptroller lays down.
Through which article 95 of Law Decree 294 of 1973, and articles 47, 48, 49, and 50 of Law 42 of 1923 are regulated.
The President of the Republic of Colombia,
In use of the regulatory power confirmed in number 3 of article 120 of the Political Constitution,
Decrees:
Article 1.- All expenditures of public funds which affect the appropriations of the National Budget, shall be done through drafts authorised by the primary legislators or their legal delegates in the Ministries, Administrative Departments, Congress of the Republic, Public Ministry, the Jurisdictional Branch, the Registry of the Civil State and in the Comptroller’s Office.
The drafts will be made chargeable to the National Treasury, attributed to and subscribed by the respective Chief Delegate of Budgets of the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit before the entity and endorsed by the Comptroller’s Office.
Article 2.- The entities which the earlier article refers to shall draw the following kinds of drafts against the appropriations of the National Budget:
a) Final pay order so as to attend to the expenditures which have to cover the direct creditors in Bogota;
b) Advance for Official Expenditure, in order to attend to the outlays to be covered in the city of Bogota in favour of a National Payer, to be denominated as "Ordinary" if one refers to a one time payment and "Permanent" if it covers the payment of various future months within the period.
c) Authorization Statement, to attend to the outlays for outside the city of Bogota in favour of a National Payer, which should be denominated as "Ordinary" if it refers to a one time payment and "Permanent" if it covers the payment of various future months within the time period.
Article 3.- Through Final Pay Orders, the value of the following expenditures will be covered in Bogota:
1. All kinds of contracts, except those of the payment of personal services, involving submission of accounts and the advances made of the same.
In this case the Office of the the Comptroller General shall demand the minutes or any other document which confirms satisfactorily the receipt of work, materials, constituent parts or other concepts.
2. Of the judgements under the charge of the Nation.
3. All kinds of national assistance;
4. Transfers and indirect investment which is drawn on national level decentralised entities with offices or accreditations in Bogota;
5. Contracts of borrowings covered by Decree 505 of 1974;
6. Transport within the country of personnel and material to the Service of the Ministry of National Defence;
Article 4.- Through Advances for Official Expenditure, the following costs in Bogota shall be covered:
1. Personal Services and General Expenditure according to the definitions of the annual National Budget;
2. Secret expenditures and reserved investigations;
3. Official receptions, legally authorized by the Government;
4. Payment for the service of the National Public Debt, both internal as well as external;
5. Drafts which are drawn in the name of the General Treasurer of the Republic in order to attend to the allocations, travel allowances, travel expenditure of commissions abroad and fees or contributions to international organizations;
6. All expenditure or contract which do not need to be paid by a Final Payment Order.
Article 5.- Through the Authorization Reports, all expenditure taking place outside the city of Bogota shall be covered through the General Treasury Office in the name of Administrators of National Taxes, or by the the authorised agents of the latter to the National Tax Collectors or National Paymasters in each region.
Article 6.- The drafts which the present Decree refers to, besides the respective originals shall have a minimum of seven (7) copies, duly legible, and shall be imputed, ratified and accounted for by the respective Delegated Budget Division. The endorsement and distribution shall be done by the respective Audit of the Comptroller’s Office and will be sent to the following:
- Original for the General Treasury of the Republic.
- Copy for the National Accountancy Division of the Comptroller’s Office.
- Copy for the corresponding Audit of the Comptroller’s Office, which might have endorsed the draft with its respective antecedents.
- Copy for the respective Delegated Budget Division of the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit dealing with the entity.
- Copy for the Administrative Office of the respective Ministry, Administrative Department or entity ordering the expenditure.
- Copy for the Paymaster’s Office, when dealing with the Advance for Official Expenditure and Authorization Report.
- Copy for the Audit before the paymaster’s office when dealing with the Authorization Reports.
Paragraph.- When dealing with Final Pay Orders the original shall be given by the ordering entity to the creditor or beneficiary. To the General Treasury of the Republic shall be sent a copy of the said order.
Article 7.- When a draft has to be made out, based on the Constitution of an Appropriation Reserve, it should be highlighted in the same as: "Draft against Reserves".
The Chief Delegate of Budgets of the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit, should take before the same body an ordered record of these drafts, with indications of chapters, articles, numerals, ordinals, projects, ideas, and other classifications which the National Budget might contain, as a resource or source of financing, the value of the draft, the balance of the reserve and the respective fiscal period.
Article 8.- The allocation of funds which at the regional level should be carried out by the respective paymasters to the auxiliary pay offices of the Ministry of National Defence, National Police, and National Administrative Department of Security or other authorized offices, shall be made through the "Delegation Report", endorsed and subject to the requirements of fiscal control.
Article 9.- "The Order of Annulment or Cancellation" for drafts drawn in accordance with what has been laid down in the present Decree, shall be carried out on a written request of the primary ordering official or his delegate, by the Chief of the Delegated Budget Division of the Finance and Public Credit Ministry before the ordering entity, with the endorsement of the respective Auditor. This request should be directed to the General Treasury, for its study and approval, which shall communicate this approval to the same entities or offices stated in article 6 of this Decree, as may be the case. Once this requisite is fulfilled it will be tabulated by the relevant Delegated Budget Division.
Once the Treasurer has made clear the funds (allocation) situation, he should immediately order the corresponding reimbursement of resources.
Article 10.- At the end of a fiscal exercise, if there exist in the Treasury, documents of draft pending payment, corresponding to earlier time periods, with the date having expired, or if the requisites for their payment were never completed, on the terms of the General Office of Budget, this branch can ask the Comptroller for the annulment of the said drafts and their corresponding record in the National Accounts for the purpose of expediting the availability certificate of the capital, for the opening of additional credits to the National Budget.
Article 11.- Officials who violate the rules in this Decree , shall be subject to the sanctions laid out in articles 163, 164, and 165 of Law Decree 294 of 1973.
Article 12.- The auditors of the Comptroller’s Office will regulate the compliance of the provisions contained in this Decree.
Article 13.- The present Decree comes into effect from the date of its being issued and laws which go against it, stand repealed.
Through which, article 6 of Decree 2886 of 1981 stands modified,
The President of the Republic of Colombia,
In the exercise of his legal and constitutional functions:
Decrees:
Article 1.- Article 6 of Decree 2886 of 1981 shall be as follows:
The drafts that the present Decree refers to shall be endorsed by the Audit pertaining to the Comptroller’s Office. Besides the original, they will have a minimum of seven (7) copies, duly legible, which will be imputed, endorsed, tabulated and distributed by the corresponding Delegated Budget Division and sent to the following:
- Original for the General Treasury
- First copy for the National Accounts Division of the Comptroller’s Office.
- Copy for the corresponding Audit of the Comptroller’s Office, who might have endorsed the draft, with its respective antecedents.
- Copy for the respective Delegated Budget Division of the Ministry of Finance before the entity.
- Copy for the Administrative Office of the respective Ministry, Administrative Department or organization ordering the expenditure.
- Copy for the paying office, when dealing with the Advance for official expenditure and Authorization Reports.
- Copy for the Audit before the payee office when dealing with Authorization Reports.
Paragraph.- When dealing with Final Payment Orders the original will be given by the ordering entity to the creditor or beneficiary. To the General Treasury will be sent a copy of the said order.
Article 2.- This Decree shall be in force from the date of its issue.
