Friday, June 14, 2024
Carlos Hernán Rodríguez Becerra will have to work on fronts such as corruption, in addition to demonstrating independence from state powers
After the intervention, in law of course, of the Council of State and even the Constitutional Court, the novel ended and Carlos Hernán Rodríguez Becerra was elected to occupy the position of Comptroller General of the Republic, to which he will return to complete the remainder of the period 2022-2026. By accepting his election, he required the support of Congress, the national government, the territorial governments and the citizens, in the exercise of the work he assumes. “This Comptroller’s Office must be a bastion of institutionality,” he stressed.
These words fit like a glove to know your new challenges in the body and show that so much insistence was worth it. Juan Francisco Navarrete, criminal and procedural lawyer, cannot explain it in the best way: “one very important thing is to demonstrate that his re-election was worth it, that it will be a non-politicized Comptroller’s Office, independent of the institution and the powers of the State. . Furthermore, it will ensure optimal and honest management in the expenditure of public resources, it will fight without political bias against corruption and waste of public funds, and it will ensure efficient execution of contracts, in general terms of the State, but especially in infrastructure works and in those that have a social impact.”
Even Rodríguez himself is very clear about it and said it, on Wednesday, after being elected. He insisted, before the full Congress that elected him, that he will exercise his position with total independence and said that it is necessary to work tirelessly to fight against all forms of corruption, without political bias.
The elected comptroller also called on the Government to be cautious in the macroeconomic assumptions of what all the social reforms that it has proposed to achieve will cost, “that they take into account, for example, a projection of growth consistent with the slowdown in economic activity, the effect of interest rates, the natural drop in household consumption, the lower income from oil exports for some of the variables, it is important to review very carefully, adequate budget planning for the period 2025”.
Another of his challenges in office, all too important, is the fight against corruption, continuing with the task, an endeavor to which the Comptroller’s Office, without a doubt, has put its shoulder to the wheel. In 2019, for example, the Directorate of Information, Analysis and Immediate Reaction (Diari) was created, a directorate of the control body equipped with technology for the exercise of fiscal surveillance, and which, through data, supports early warnings to avoid loss of public resources. The tools are at your disposal to keep you on task in this regard.
For his part, the full professor of the Department of Political Science at the Javeriana University, Humberto Librado, says that: “in my opinion there are three great challenges that today’s comptroller general must take on. First of all, we find the articulation with the territorial comptrollers. The support and audit activities must consider these different levels so that they do not act in isolation from the review of the contracting processes in the country, especially in the aspects that involve the territories, which contributes to strengthening efficiency. of public spending.” He believes that, secondly, the other challenge is “the relationship with the Attorney General’s Office (also key to the fight against corruption). The actions of these two entities contribute to the advancement of investigations and pertinent disciplinary sanctions, in addition to tax findings.. A better relationship strengthens actions against corruption in the country.”
And finally, he believes that Rodríguez Becerra “has the responsibility of strengthening trust in institutions in an environment in which citizens feel strong conditions of endemic corruption. This building of trust depends on the effectiveness of the Comptroller’s Office in its actions, but also in effective communication with citizens and its response to their requests and complaints.” And those complaints, precisely, have to do with another primary challenge for him and anyone there: more actions against unfinished works, the ‘white elephants’.
Background
In his speech in Congress, Carlos Hernán Rodríguez asserted that “it is necessary to evaluate the causes of the nominal drop in tax collection and determine if it is due to management difficulties.” He also considered that the Ministry of Finance should consider other options that allow achieving a fiscal adjustment with a greater degree of sustainability and less impact on the economy, such as reviewing debt management.
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