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A Tool for Strengthening Oversight and Territorial Democratic Governance
and services. This premise applies even more to the great organization
of the state that is mandated, by means of its structure, to guarantee and
protect the rights of the population. Otherwise, the level of governance
deteriorates and the democratic stability of states is placed at risk.
When the Colombian government codified its political organization
into a united decentralized republic with autonomous territorial entities
(Article 1 in the 1991 constitution), the exercise of the duties related
to the administration of these territories was not entirely conceived
or implemented. While the constitution prescribed for the creation
of internal and external controls, the entities responsible for these
mandates did not have the necessary technical and financial capacities
to manage the territories efficiently. Thus the resources managed by
the territories significantly increased (from 32 percent to 46.5 percent
of the country’s basic revenues between 1992 and 2001)
3
and their
mandates expanded (education, health, water sanitation and potable
water) but the lack of capacity, regulation and control led to the so-
called “territorial fiscal crisis” between 1994 and 1998.
4
As such, the
investments directed towards operations (overstaffed payrolls) exceeded
the revenues (a fiscal deficit of -0.2 percent to -0.6 percent of GDP
between 1990 and 1999) generating a spiral towards excessive debt (of
1.1 percent to 3.5 percent of GDP between 1990 and 1999)
5
and a
poor provision of public goods and services.
Between 1995 and 2000, the situation in the territorial institutions
increasingly deteriorated, and the controlling entities imposed low
levels of fiscal and disciplinary sanctions and existing regulation
revealed deep gaps in relation to transparency and discipline in the
management of public resources. Consequently, these gaps were
exploited by organized crime and unscrupulous characters that
contributed to major corruption scandals throughout the country.
To counteract this problem, the national government adopted a set
of laws especially aimed at cleaning up public finances.
6
Although
great institutional weaknesses still exist, these laws have generally been
applied rigorously and have helped to provide stability to the fiscal
structure of the territorial entities.
