ONCE again a constitutional reform project arrives in Congress to eliminate the cterritorial comptrollers and, incidentally, strengthen the Comptroller General of the Republic.
The proposal, which has already been analyzed in different legislatures by previous congresses, this time is put on the table by the representative of the Democratic Center for Antioquia Hernán Cadavid, who filed a legislative act in that regard.
ENS: What is your proposal to eliminate departmental comptrollers?
HERNAN CADAVID: It is a legislative act that has had a long history in the Legislature and the country. This intention of reform has not been successful. It was tried in the referendum at the beginning of this century, but it did not reach enough votes. It has also been presented on a couple of occasions to the Congress of the Republic and has not progressed either.
On this occasion, the crisis in these territorial entities, instead of being resolved, continues to deepen. The territorial comptrollers became bureaucratic apparatuses that serve one of two purposes: to persecute political enemies or to cover up, accommodate, and pay favors. Fiscal control does not appear anywhere.
That is why I think it is important to open this debate and give the Comptroller General a stronger fiscal control, but completely eliminating the figure of regional or territorial comptrollers. That is the purpose of the legislative act.
ENS: Would there be savings in public spending?
H.C.: That is also a purpose, but first you have to give peace of mind to the people who work in these organizations in good faith. Obviously, if the comptrollerships disappear, ways must be found so that they can be incorporated into the Comptroller General’s Office, which has to continue fulfilling fiscal control functions, but no longer under the guidance of local powers.
A specific case is what happens in Antioquia, where they have used the sectional comptroller to persecute mayors or to encourage them in some way, as has been denounced. That can not be. A comptroller cannot become an instrument of political persecution.
ENS: Would that put an end to the duplication of functions that has been denounced, since the Comptroller General has regional delegated comptrollers?
H.C.: What the Comptroller General currently has is the figure of managers or directors. They are offices which do not have the main powers, they can exercise preferential control but it is not usual. In practice, the General Comptroller’s Office has offices in the regions that are not fully compliant due to fiscal control competence. On the contrary, when there are departmental comptrollers, fiscal control prevails in them, if it is not claimed by the central level.
ENS: What would be the change then?
H.C.: The Comptroller’s Office would have to assume in a principal way and by competence of knowledge all the cases that happen in the regions. This would imply that this role is deepened, not fighting competitions with the regional ones, but knowing first-hand each one of the fiscal control situations in the regions. This with greater institutional capacity, with greater research possibilities, with greater possibilities of collaboration and instruction, which is what does not happen today in the country’s regions.
ENS: Did you present this project to the controller?
H.C.: I did not consult with them. I respect the opinion of the comptroller, who was also a regional comptroller. It must be said that this is not a direct attack against a specific sector or a person. I will invite the comptroller Carlos Hernán Rodríguez institutionally within the discussions in Congress.
ENS: And the debate on the creation of a Court of Accounts instead of the Comptroller’s Office?
H.C.: It’s a posibility. I believe that a national discussion could be opened, with the participation of the Government, so that it can tell us what it considers about this institutional model and if it agrees or not.
An invitation to the congressmen of the Democratic Center to help strengthen the new model of fiscal control and withdraw the legislative act that proposes the elimination of the territorial comptrollers, made the former auditor general and today external advisor of the Comptroller General for strategic plans, Ivan Dario Gomez Lee.
When participating as a panelist in the regional forum “Colombia proposes the new model of fiscal control”, developed in Medellín, the expert referred to the Uribismo project and assured that “the best thing that can be done is to withdraw it. The Democratic Center has definitely been defeated several times in the suppression of the regional comptrollers, don’t insist on that anymore”.
Gómez Lee recalled that the proposal was already defeated in the 2003 referendum and the citizens said no to this suppression, since they want a solid institutional framework and “the proposal to suppress the comptrollers did not generate confidence.”
The former auditor asked that “we do politics with a capital P, public policy, and not do populism and politicking by putting the territorial comptrollers as cannon fodder to try to ingratiate themselves with a society that did not want to suppress them.”
He reiterated the invitation to the congressmen of the Democratic Center to work together to strengthen the new model of fiscal control.