Political Constitution of Colombia (1991)

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.