Comptroller General of Colombia
Encyclopedia
The Office of the Comptroller General of the Republic of Colombia is a Colombia
Colombia
Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...

n independent government institution that acts as the highest form of fiscal control in the country. As such, it has a mission to seek the proper allocation of resources and public funds and contribute to the modernization of the state, by means of continuous improvement in the various public entities. It is one of the Colombian Control Institutions along with the Office of the Inspector General of Colombia
Inspector General of Colombia
The Office of the Inspector General of Colombia is a Colombian independent, public institution overseeing the public conduct of those in authority or in charge of exercising a public office, and of overseeing the correct functioning of other government institutions and agencies...

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History

In 1923, after several years of financial crisis, President Pedro Nel Ospina
Pedro Nel Ospina
Pedro Nel Ospina Vázquez was a Colombian general and political figure. He served as president of Colombia between 1922 and 1926.- Biography:...

 requested an expert committee to study Colombian economic conditions. This committee, led by American economist Edwin Walter Kemmerer (known as The Money Doctor) was called the Kemmerer Mission. Kemmerer had already worked with Latin American governments; that of Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...

 in 1917 and of Guatemala
Guatemala
Guatemala is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize to the northeast, the Caribbean to the east, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast...

 in 1919.
Up until then the Court of Auditors was the accountability agency of the nation, it was an agency of judicial and fiscal
Finance
"Finance" is often defined simply as the management of money or “funds” management Modern finance, however, is a family of business activity that includes the origination, marketing, and management of cash and money surrogates through a variety of capital accounts, instruments, and markets created...

 nature, but it was part of the Executive Branch
Executive Branch of Colombia
The Executive Branch of Government in Colombia is one of the three branches of the government of Colombia under the Constitutional provision of separation of powers...

. A study led by the Kemmerer Mission, with the assistance of the Colombian Finance Minister
Ministry of Finance and Public Credit
The Ministry of Finance and Public Credit , is the national executive ministry of the Government of Colombia responsible for the financial and budgetary matters of the country as well as implementing the financial policies passed by Congress, equivalent to the finance ministries of other...

 Esteban Jaramillo, recommended Congress to create the Bank of the Republic
Bank of the Republic (Colombia)
The Bank of the Republic is the state-run central bank of the Republic of Colombia. Its main functions are detailed by the Congress according to the . One of them is the issuance of the Colombian currency, the peso.-History:...

, and the Office of the Comptroller General, and to structure the laws for this function using those already existing. The Kemmerer Mission recommended the creation of the Office of the Comptroller General after considering that it could establish the necessary means for imposing a strict observance of the laws and administrative norms in the management of resources and public funds.

Government introduced new legislation in Congress
Congress of Colombia
The Congress of the Republic of Colombia is the name given to Colombia's bicameral national legislature.The Congress of Colombia consists of the 102-seat Senate , and the 166-seat Chamber of Representatives ...

 following the recommendations of the Kemmerer Mission. Law 42 of 1923 was passed by Congress, being signed by the President of the Senate
President of the Congress of Colombia
The President of the Congress of Colombia is the leader of the Congress of the Republic of Colombia. The Presidency of Congress is assumed by the person elected as President of the Senate of Colombia by members of the Senate in an election held every year on July 20...

 Luis de Greiff, and the President of the Chamber of Representatives Ignacio Moreno. The new law was approved and signed by President Nel Ospina and his Minister of Finance Gabriel Posada, and finally ratified by Congress on July 19, 1923.

The Office of the Comptroller General began functioning on September 1, 1923, when Law 42 took effect. The first Comptroller General of the Republic was Eugenio Andrade, who was appointed by President Ospina. The current Comptroller General is Julio César Turbay Quintero
Julio César Turbay Quintero
Julio César Turbay Quintero is a Colombian lawyer and politician. A Liberal party politician, he served as the 33rd Comptroller General of Colombia, Senator and Chamber Representative, as well as Deputy to the Cundinamarca Departamental Assembly, and Councilmember to various Municipal Councils in...

, son of former President Julio César Turbay Ayala
Julio César Turbay Ayala
Julio César Turbay Ayala was a Colombian politician, member of the Colombian Liberal Party, elected president of the Senate of Colombia and and, was president of Colombia from 1978 to 1982.- Biographic data :...

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