2024-10-28 06:01:00
A reflection on what should be
Although this complaint was reported, it was not remedied.
Accountability is the obligation of public officials to report, demonstrate and justify their activities, as well as the management of public affairs, including documentary support for the disposition of the financial resources assigned to them or was budgeted. Accountability therefore consists of detailing and crediting the execution of the budget by the responsible officers, through reliable information.
During the Colonial period, accountability was enforced through the residency test, which was a judicial process to which public officials were subject at the end of their administration. The actions of all the officers, without exception, were investigated ex officio and complaints were received against them. Viceroys, governors, captains-general, magistrates, mayors and judges of the audience were subject to this rule.
The Guatemalan Constitution incorporates the accountability of the Executive Body (OE), as an information, investigation and control mechanism, headed by the Comptroller General (CGC), whose main function is to oversee revenues, expenses and, in general, supervision. all tax interests, as well as the scrutiny of Congress, in the exercise of one of the interorganizational controls of the Legislature on the Executive, is an inherent element of the principle of separation of powers.
In case of disagreement, the Conference must request the relevant reports or explanations and, if it is for punishable reasons, it must confirm what is appropriate to the Public Ministry.
Within the framework of the OE’s obligation to be accountable to Congress, the Magna Carta determines that each ministry must formulate the liquidation of the annual budget and submit it to the CGC within the first three months of each year; and this must, after receiving it, give a report and issue an opinion within a period not exceeding two months, and send it to the Congress, which must, in whole or in part, detail and justify the approve or disallow income. and public finance expenses presented by the EMB in relation to the previous fiscal year. In case of disagreement, the Conference must request the relevant reports or explanations and, if it is for punishable reasons, it must confirm what is appropriate to the Public Ministry.
In any case, as long as the liquidation derived from the execution of the respective budget has not been approved or disapproved by the Legislature, the prescribed periods (expired due to the passage of time) of the civil liability of the officials (20 years), will also like the penalty of liability (due to twice the time set by law to order the sentence) to remain suspended (under detention for an indefinite period), until the reason for the suspension is overcome, that is, lack of approval or disallowed the liquidation of the budget execution.
Since the Congress, assuming that the CGC presented, within the established period, the reports and opinions regarding budget execution settlements, details and justification of the income and expenditure of the public finance for the years of prosecutors since 1998, including the last one (2023), which the OE thought, that is, for more than 25 years, the repeated failure of the constitutional mandate that has been shown is unchallengeable. Although this complaint was reported, it was not remedied. In that context, it cannot be forgotten that the deputies are participating in the execution of part of the public expenditure that corresponds to the OE (geographic list of works).
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