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A Tool for Strengthening Oversight and Territorial Democratic Governance
following questions arise: How much does the Colombian government
spend on oversight and which forms are most effective? What type of
relationships should exist among the different oversight entities, what
should their responsibilities be and how should they be distributed?
Should the national government continue to strengthen oversight
mechanisms on its own or alongside external oversight entities? Which
entities are responsible for providing training and technical assistance
to territorial entities, and to what extent?
Guided by the aforementioned questions, and with the intent of
leveraging and optimizing the functions of the many oversight entities,
the National Solicitor General (PGN), has sought to adopt modern
tools that allow it to optimize its mandate. In doing so, the PGN
aims to compensate for a historical weakness in the administration
of oversight, implementing a system of preventative monitoring
of territorial administration lending its competitive advantage: the
vigilance and promotion of the adherence to norms.
9
This system,
embodied in the Index of Open Government (IGA) aims to conduct
a systematic monitoring of the fulfillment of strategic norms related
to the fight against corruption in local public office and achieve three
objectives: generate early alerts; promote legality and best practices;
and primarily, prevent irregular acts and disciplinary sanctions.
Thus, in the first section of this document the theoretical and operational
methodology of IGA is set forth. In the second section, the results of
a pilot application of the IGA are presented. In the third and final
section, the primary conclusions are discussed, including challenges
that arose from the exercise. Each one of the points briefly presented
in this essay can be further studied in
Index of Open Government 2009-
2010
pilot program report measuring anti-corruption regulations in
municipalities in the State of Santander.
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The IGA Theoretical Framework: The Triangle of Corruption
The PGN is the highest entity of oversight of the Colombian
government apparatus and its mandate is to “ensure adherence to the
