Since 2019, all senior state officials, by regulation, must make public your declarations of assets, your income tax and the registry of possible conflicts of interest.
This includes the President, Vice President, Senators, and House Representatives.
(Read: Minister Irene Vélez ratifies controversial report on gas resources).
Law 2013 of 2019 states it very clearly: “The publication of this information will be a requirement to take office, exercise and retire from office.”. Although in some cases there is a good percentage of compliance, in other cases the balance is not good.
In the case of the Congress of the Republic, compliance has not been high. 73% of senators and representatives have not complied with this obligation, according to the court report of January 24 to which EL TIEMPO had access.
The Application for Public Integrity, a tool created by the Administrative Department of the Civil Service for compliance with this rule, shows that the president Gustavo Petro and Vice President Francia Márquez have not published their income statement either.
In fact, the system shows that they have not published or updated their information on the platform since the beginning of its functions, andl August 7, 2022, con the declaration corresponding to the taxable year 2021.
(See: Minister Irene Vélez explains controversy over the report on gas reserves).
In contrast, all cabinet ministers registered in a timely manner between August and September. Here you can see your income statements.
The heritage of Gustavo Petro
In the case of Petro, however, there are income and conflict of interest declarations published on that platform. The system shows documents uploaded on December 31, 2020 at 10:25 p.m.. All correspond to the taxable year 2019, when he was a senator.
By that time, the congressman reported a gross patrimony of $1,284’962,000 million and debts for 1,193,266,000 million, which leaves a net worth of 91,696,000 pesos.
Among his assets is a house in Chía worth $439′ 999,998 pesos and furniture and belongings worth $838’316,619 pesos.
Then, in June 2022, through Twitter, when he was still a candidate for the Presidency, Petro published a photograph of his income statement for the 2020 taxable year.
(Read: Minenergía’s ‘happy’ accounts on gas reserves).
In her, a gross patrimony of $1,358’078,000 Colombian pesos is registered and its debts were $1,129’004,000 pesoss. Therefore, his total net worth was $229,074,000 pesos. This income statement is the last publicly known of the current Head of State.
And the statement by Francia Márquez?
In the case of the Vice President, who still does not have a record of her income statement in the Public Integrity Application, the spokespersons for her office told EL TIEMPO that “Due to the tax calendar, the Vice President is responsible for submitting her statement in August 2023”.
However, the Administrative Department of the Public Function pointed out in statements to EL TIEMPO that “like all the people obliged to comply with Law 2013 of 2019, the senior State officials who began work on August 7 must publish their statement property and income, conflicts of interest and income tax as a requirement to take possession and, likewise, those who finished their work must publish their statement as a requirement to withdraw from office.
(Read: Andi’s 30/30 Vision points to the single-use plastic law).
The congressmen are not complying either
The number of congressmen who comply with the law, making their declarations of income, assets and conflicts of interest public, ands minimum according to the Public Function application.
In Colombia, between the two chambers of the legislature, there are 280 congressmen. Of these, 77 have submitted their statements. That represents only 26% of the total. In short, only one in four legislators have complied with this obligation.
BRIEFCASE
With the investigation of the Data Unit of EL TIEMPO*
