Bill 314.

Summary.

The bill amends Article 74 of Law 37 of 2009, which decentralizes public administration. It makes a corregimiento (district) representative and the treasurer or accountant of a Communal Board (Junta Comunal) responsible for the public funds they administer and manage. It establishes an oversight framework for those officials covering transactions involving those funds, subsequent review of certain actions, an annual audit, and publication of information on the board’s financial management.

As a prior control, every act involving the management of public funds, including contracts, payments, transfers, and purchases of goods and services, would require prior endorsement by the Office of the Comptroller General of the Republic (Co~traloría General de la Republica) or a delegated body. The applicable procedure would be the one established in the Organic Law of the Comptroller (Ley Orgánica de la Contraloría). The endorsement would have to be granted by written resolution within the period set by the oversight authority itself.

The bill provides for subsequent review of acts that are exempt from prior control under a legal exception or are carried out because of justified urgency. In those cases, the corregimiento representative and the treasurer would submit a detailed supporting report within thirty (30) days following the act’s execution. The Comptroller’s Office (Contraloría) or its delegate would then review that documentation. The proposed provision thus ties the form of oversight to the circumstances in which each act involving public funds is carried out.

It also requires an annual financial and management audit, whether internal or external, of funds administered during the immediately preceding fiscal year. The audit would be commissioned directly by the Office of the Comptroller General (Contraloría General) or by an authorized audit entity. Its report would be delivered to the Communal Board and published on ANTAI’s transparency portal no later than one hundred and twenty (120) days after the close of the fiscal year. It would include administrative, financial, and regulatory compliance findings, together with clear recommendations that must be followed up.

For public disclosure, the Communal Board would publish online the acts subject to prior and subsequent control, monthly financial movement reports, and the annual audit report. Failure to comply with prior endorsement, subsequent reports, the audit, or publication would give rise to administrative, civil, or criminal liability, as applicable, under the fiscal liability framework established in the Constitution and the law. The bill states that it would take effect on the day following its promulgation.

The proposal concerns the Communal Board, the Comptroller’s Office, the Office of the Comptroller General of the Republic, and the National Assembly (Asamblea Nacional), as well as corregimiento representatives, treasurers, accountants, audit entities, and suppliers contracting with communal boards in Panama.