Eduardo Lara Salazar.- Certain elements that support the response to the initial proposal, such as (i) the autonomy of the Office of the Comptroller General of the Republic and other members of the National Fiscal Control System, their powers and nature; as well as the (ii) duty of public bodies – centralized or not – as well as public officials and servants to provide the greatest collaboration towards the System for the fulfillment of their tasks, it is time to clear up the unknown of the question in relation to the individuals.
In the exercise of their functions, the General Comptroller’s Office and the rest of the components of the Fiscal Control System, of which the municipalities form part through the Municipal Comptroller’s Office, for example; They can carry out monitoring and control tasks on:
- Income.
- Bills.
- Municipal public goods.
- Relative operations on these.
- Carry out an external fiscal control of legality, management, veracity or legal numerical, on the administrative actions of the organs and entities, as well as the people whose activities and operations are susceptible to control or verification.
The Organic Law of the Municipal Public Power (LOPPM, 2010) dedicates norms on the Municipal Comptrollership in the same vein as the Organic Law of the General Comptrollership of the Republic and the National System of Fiscal Control (LOCGR, 2010), not only insofar as the elements described above, but also on:
- Execution of contracts.
- Control, vigilance and supervision in the operations carried out on behalf of the Treasury in the auxiliary banks of the Municipal Treasury.
- Contributions, subsidies and other transfers made by the Republic and other public bodies to the Municipality.
- Those that it carries out towards other public or private entities are invested in the purposes for which they were made, being able to establish the control systems that it deems appropriate.
As a pedagogical strategy – deliberately – a part of the LOCGR regulations was omitted, to establish the idea of the importance and transcendence of control over funds and municipal public goods, for the case at hand.
Therefore, it is now appropriate to emphasize the meaning of said Law towards the private sector; in effect, the LOCGR regulates the situation of the relationship with those who are not from the public sector:
“…individuals are obliged to collaborate with the bodies that make up the National Fiscal Control System, and to provide them with the information written or verbal, books, records and documents that they are required for the exercise of its powers.
Likewise, they must attend to the citations or calls that are made to them.”
(ELS underlined and bold)
“The comptrollers of the states, districts, metropolitan districts and the municipalities, they will exercise the control, monitoring and supervision of the income, expenses and assets of the centralized and decentralized bodies and entities subject to its controlin accordance with the law, and for such purposes they shall enjoy organic, functional and administrative autonomy…”
(ELS underline)
Note that the Law does not make a distinction if it is before a natural or legal person, the former being the individuals of the human species and the latter – the legislator’s fiction – created in accordance with nature, either of a civil or commercial nature, for which the regulations of the Venezuelan Civil Code (1982), the Venezuelan Commerce Code (1955), where appropriate, have been complied with; the Decree with the rank, value and force of the Public Registry and Notary Law (2014) and other applicable instruments according to the matter in question: insurance, banking, foundation, among others.
The action of the Comptroller – according to the LOCGR – is also felt by taxpayers and tax officials, according to the notions provided by the Organic Tax Code (2020) as follows:
“… It corresponds to the Comptroller’s Office to exercise over the taxpayers and those responsible, provided for in the Organic Tax Code, as well as over other individuals, the powers that this Law specifically attributes to it…” (Underlining by ELS)
The instrument is complemented by the meaning of what is expressed in this way:
“…The natural or legal persons who are taxpayers or responsible, in accordance with the provisions of the Organic Tax Code, or who in any way contract, negotiate or carry out operations with any of the agencies or entities mentioned in the previous numerals or who receive contributions, subsidies, other transfers or tax incentives, or that in any way intervene in the administration, management or custody of public resources…”
(ELS underline)
The COT conceives the taxpayers and those responsible as the passive subjects within the legal tax relationship, so they are the ones required to comply with the tax benefits. In this way, it seeks to cover the aspiration of the Constituent Assembly and the Legislator at all levels of the absolute feasibility of control in safeguarding public property and minimize – if not avoid at all costs – injuries to it, product of irregular handling, either willfully or willfully.
This already has antecedents within the legislative order, since the Comptroller General of the Republic, like the rest of the control bodies, has always been conceived with the competence for these matters, but also to warn by way of repair the occurrence of illegalities. , lack of receipts, inaccuracies, deficiencies, lack of diligence, lack of veracity, probity, among others, of the handling of the account presented by officials and public servants, such as those of individuals, either because they are recipients or executors of funds and other contributions, or those derived from their role as a taxpayer.
No less important, the competence for the imposition of sanctions established by the LOCGR must also be alerted, for which reason the call is made to behave appropriately in all lines of action, whether public or private.
In view of the foregoing, it can be clearly concluded that the Municipal Comptroller’s Office has the competence to carry out its duties on individuals.
On another occasion, topics related to the theme will be discussed.
Do not forget, the country is built from its municipalities.
