Law No. 2013

The first document provides for the obligation to disclose the information about the income and assets*, as well as conflict-of-interest situations for:

• all publicly elected officials;
• judges of the Supreme Court of Justice and the courts of general jurisdiction;
• members of the National Electoral Council;
• Attorney General and local attorneys, Comptroller General, Ombudsman, and the Civil Registrar;
• ministers, superintendants, heads of administrative departments and special administrative units;
• public and private natural and legal persons, providing public services (only with respect to the information related to the provision of public services);
• public and private natural and legal persons who conclude contracts with the State and distribute public goods and resources (only with respect to the information related to the implementation of the abovementioned functions);
• President of the Republic;
• rectors and presidents of public universities;
• Governor and the members of the Board of Directors of the Bank of the Republic (central bank);
• ambassadors and consuls of Colombia to other countries.

The disclosure of income and conflict-of-interest declarations will be obligatory when the indicated categories of individuals assume their office. After that the officials are obliged to submit the updated declaration every year and once they leave their office. Those categories that are not subject to the provisions regarding the assumption of an office are to disclose their declarations at the time they start performing their public functions, providing public services or managing public goods and resources, every year after that throughout their activities and once they terminate them.

In the event that in the period between the deadlines for submitting declarations there are any considerable changes in income or assets or a conflict-of-interest situation arises, the individual must notify accordingly the competent bodies.

The information to be publicly disclosed regards:

• income and expenses for the past tax year;
• amount and source of current loans and other property obligations;
• bank accounts held by an official and their balance;
• property belonging to an official and the members of his/her family;
• membership in corporations, companies and associations;
• membership in boards of directors of entities, along with the information about the entity and the full composition of the board of directors;
• private economic activities.

All these data will be registered and kept in the System of Information and Management of Public Employment (Sistema de Información y Gestión del Empleo Público, SIGEP).

*It was part C, chapter 2 of Law No. 190 of 1995 “On Ethical Rules for Public Administration and Provisions for Eradicating Corruption” that imposed the obligation to disclose the information about income and assets of officials in Colombia. According to the Law, the declaration must be submitted when an official assumes his/her public office and be annually updated after that, however this legal act did not provide for the requirement to publicly disclose the declarations.

Law No. 2014

The second of the adopted laws increases the penalties for the commitment of corruption offences and introduces specific amendments to the procedure for imposing them.

In particular, the document changes the approach towards the application of penalties in the form of the restriction of freedom for the commitment of corruption crimes. The main novelty consists in the removal of the right of the convicted individuals to serve a half of their term on house arrest: from now on they will have to serve it entirely in places of detention.

Besides that, the individuals convicted of corruption crimes are indefinitely prohibited from concluding public contracts (before that the law provided for the exclusion from participating in public contracts for the period of 20 years).

This measure can be applied both directly to the convicted individual and the company that did not prevent the natural person associated with it from committing a corruption crime.

In addition, the individuals convicted of corruption will also be banned from teaching: the law prohibits them from holding relevant positions in schools and higher education institutions.