Key Benefits:
LAW 781 OF 2002
(December 20)
Official Journal No. 45,041 of 21 December 2002
PUBLIC POWER-LEGISLATIVE BRANCH
By which the authorizations conferred on the National Government are extended to celebrate external and internal public credit operations and operations assimilated to the previous ones and other provisions are dictated.
The Congress of Colombia
DECRETA:
BORROWING AUTHORIZATIONS.
ARTICLE 1o. Amplify in sixteen billion dollars from the United States of America or its equivalent in other currencies (US$ 16,500,000,000.00), the authorizations granted to the National Government by Article first of Law 533 of 1999 and previous laws, other than those expressly granted by other rules, to conduct external public credit operations, domestic public credit operations, as well as as operations assimilated to the previous ones, intended for financing Budget appropriations and programmes and projects for economic and social development.
The authorizations granted by this article are different from those granted by the article 2or. of Law 533 of 1999. As a result, the exercise of that exercise shall not in any way affect the exercise of that provision.
BORROWING QUOTA PROVISIONS.
ARTICLE 2o. The Ministry of Finance and Public Credit-Directorate General of Public Credit will affect the authorizations conferred by the article 1or. of this law, on the date on which the respective minute of contract is approved by the General Directorate of Public Credit. In the case of issue and placement of debt securities, the authorisations granted shall be affected by the date of their placement.
ARTICLE 3o. The public credit operations or their assimilations that the Nation celebrates with a term of less than or equal to one year, as well as the debt management operations it performs, will not affect the authorisations conferred by this law. In any event, the public credit or similar operations held by the Nation with a term of less than or equal to one year shall affect the amount of indebtedness authorized here, when that period is extended to more than one year.
ARTICLE 4. The debt authorizations granted by the law to the Nation shall be deemed to be exhausted once they have been used. However, the amounts that are affected and are not contracted or those that are contracted and cancelled for non-use, as well as those that are reimbursed in the normal course of the operation, will increase the availability of the legal quota affected and for their new use shall be subject to the provisions of Decree 2681 of 1993 and other applicable provisions.
OTHER PROVISIONS ON PUBLIC INDEBTEDNESS.
ARTICLE 5o. The modifications to the acts and contracts relating to the public credit operations, assimilated, debt management and related to the previous ones, held by the state entities and that have have been approved and/or authorized by the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit, they must be approved by the General Directorate of Public Credit. For the purpose, the entity must submit a reasoned request, accompanied, as the case may be, by the authorization of the Departmental Assembly, the Municipal Council or the respective management body. Without prejudice to the foregoing, the amending contract shall be concluded on the basis of the minute approved by that Directorate.
Changes that imply additions to the contracted amount must be processed in accordance with the provisions of the applicable legal rules for the hiring of new operations.
ARTICLE 6o. 1341 of 2009 > Without prejudice to the provisions of Articles 31 and 32 of Law 142 of 1994 for other acts and contracts, the management and conclusion of the acts and contracts covered by Decree 2681 of 1993 and other rules agreed by public service undertakings in the official and mixed houses, as well as those with direct participation or indirectly of the State of more than fifty percent of its share capital, shall be subject to rules on public credit applicable to decentralised entities in the relevant administrative order.
ARTICLE 7o. The management and conclusion of the acts and contracts covered by Decree 2681 of 1993 and other concordant rules by metropolitan areas, and associations of municipalities, shall be subject to the rules on public credit applicable to decentralised entities in the territorial order.
For the same purposes, autonomous university entities, autonomous, regional corporations, and the National Television Commission will be subject to the regulations applicable to the decentralized entities of the national order.
The National Government will establish the rules for determining the payment capacity of the entities mentioned in the first and second paragraphs of this article. For this purpose, the Government shall take into account, among other criteria, the characteristics of each entity, the activities of its object and the general composition of its revenue and expenditure.
ARTICLE 8o. State entities, including state financial institutions, shall report monthly disbursements for the following two years of their contracted external credits and in negotiations or scheduled, in which they participate or plan to participate as a direct borrower or as the executor of the Nation's credits, which must be mensualized. In addition and on a quarterly basis, a quarterly program of disbursements for the following five (5) years should be sent together with the previous programming.
ARTICLE 9o. The National Government will guide the policy of public debt towards the preservation of the country's fiscal stability.
The National Government will be able to define and classify new forms of indebtedness and new types of operations complementary to those of public credit, such as the assimilated, related and debt management, so that it can use the existing mechanisms in the financial and capital market.
ARTICLE 10. The legal representatives of the state entities will be responsible and disciplined when the projects in charge of the state entities that are to be financed with the resources of the credit are not execute for reasons not attributable to government authorities or third parties.
In order to make it easier for the DNP to exercise the monitoring function attributed to it by the applicable legal rules, the former entities will have to produce a quarterly report showing the state of implementation of the project and, if the case, the reasons that have prevented their advancement and the measures taken by the executor to overcome the respective obstacles.
The National Department of Planning will have to provide the Ministry of Public Credit and Public Credit-General Public Credit Directorate-and the Inter-Parliamentary Credit Commission with the reports obtained in accordance with the previous paragraph.
ARTICLE 11. The National Department of Planning will refrain from giving course to the National Council for Economic and Social Policy, Conpes, to credit operations aimed at financing projects investment without verifying that the latter comply with the fiscal policy criteria identified by the National Council for Fiscal Policy, Confis, and/or when there has been no verification of the existence of counterpart resources for its implementation; when they are required.
In the event that an investment project has the counterpart resources but lacks the authorization to invest them within the term of its execution, the deadlines that govern it must be adapted to those provided by the tax space that has been allocated to you.
ARTICLE 12. The Inter-Parliamentary Public Credit Commission will meet at the request of the National Government or by a decision of the majority of its Members. The Commission may also cite the Ministers of the Office, Directors of Administrative Departments and other senior government officials to report on the state of execution of the public credit operations held. by the respective entities, with a view to facilitating the control exercised by the corporation over such operations.
ARTICLE 13. The use of the resources of the Oil Savings and Stabilization Fund, FAEP, authorized by Article 133 of Law 633 of 2000, shall be subject to the following rules:
1. They may use the quota allocated to territorial entities producing and non-producing hydrocarbons which have not already done so under the terms of Decree 1939 of 2001 or where they have been used for a remainder or where a return of the same by the respective creditor.
2. The amount of the usable resources of the FAEP for each territorial entity is the one that corresponds to the distribution carried out by the National Department of Planning following the methodology set out in Decree 1939 of 2001.
3. The resources of the territorial entities producing and not producing hydrocarbons may be used for the payment of the debts in force at the time of issue of this law, originating from the purchase of energy for the users of the service, whether the service has been provided directly by the territorial entity or through its respective decentralised entity.
4. The resources authorized by article 133 of Law 633 of 2000 may be used by the territorial entities to pay the debts in force at the time of issue of this law, contracted with third parties for electrical energy supplied to health facilities, primary and secondary basic education, for the processing of drinking water and basic sanitation, and for the debt for public lighting.
5. Territorial entities producing and not producing hydrocarbons may allocate the authorized resources referred to in this Article to the payment of the debts in force at the time of issue of this law, to their charge by way of (a) of labour allowances, labour liabilities, loan liabilities and debt of public services other than energy when they have been supplied to the establishments concerned by the preceding paragraph 4 of this Article.
6. The resources referred to in this standard may also be used for the payment of the following debts:
(a) Debt acquired with the Financial Entities monitored by the Banking Superintendency as of 29 December 2000;
b) Debt to the Nation as of December 29, 2000;
c) Debt to the Institute for Regional Development and Development in force on 29 December 2000;
d) Debt for subsidies recognised by energy distribution companies, in force at 29 December 2000:
e) Debt to suppliers as defined in Decree 2681 of 1993, in force on 29 December 2000.
7. The balance of the resources to be paid after the cancellation of all the debts covered by the preceding numerals may be allocated to investment projects to be determined by the relevant territorial entity, for which they shall submit to the National Royalty Commission the following:
(a) Certification issued by the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit-Directorate General of Public Credit-in which there are available resources available in accordance with the provisions set out here;
b) Certification issued by the planning dependency of the respective territorial entity in which it is established that the project (s) to be financed with FAEP resources are included in the respective Development Plan of the territorial entity;
c) Certification that for the purpose of the National Department of Planning, it is established that the project (s) to be financed with the resources of the FAEP are registered in the Bank of Investment Projects, BPIN.
PARAGRAFO 1o. The territorial entities shall determine the order of precedence with which the payments referred to in numerals 3 to 6 of this provision are to be made, taking into account the efficiency criterion in the management of public resources.
PARAGRAFO 2o. In the event that the available resources of the FAEP in favor of the territorial entity are insufficient to cover the cost of the total financing of the project, the respective territorial entity must to ensure the full funding of the same, either with own resources or from other sources of funding. For this purpose, the respective certificate of budgetary availability shall accompany the existence and commitment of the respective resources to the project.
PARAGRAFO 3o. If the territorial entity becomes available to finance with FAEP resources investment projects, and in spite of this it does not have investment projects registered in the BPIN, will proceed to its presentation and shall in any event exhaust the procedure laid down for these purposes.
PARAGRAFO 4o. The National Regalier Commission will regulate-before June 30, 2003-the manner in which the resources available under the terms set forth in this article should be rotated.
ARTICLE 14. The debts in favor of the Nation paid and that are paid by the territorial entities producing and not producing hydrocarbons with the resources of the article 133 of Act 633 of 2000, shall be governed by the financial conditions of the agreements and/or contracts entered into or which are entered into with the debtor entities that have received or are in accordance with Laws 550 of 1999 and 617 of 2000.
In events in which the debtor entities referred to in the preceding paragraph do not restructure or have not restructured their debts under the terms and conditions of the laws referred to therein, the balance of capital due on 15 November 2001 must be restructured at a cost that-measured in terms of margin or spread over the base rate of interest calculation-decreases by two hundred and fifty (250) basis points.
The entities that are dealing with this article may allocate the resources to which he refers to pay the debts that they have with the Nation, even if they were in arrears by November 14, 2001. In any event, such debts will only cause moratory interest to that date and, from it, the currents in the terms set out in the preceding incites.
ARTICLE 15. In order to implement the institutional strengthening programs of the territorial entities that have signed a Program of Adjustment in the terms of the Law 617 2000 and/or that the 1999 Act 550 has been received or received, the National Government will allocate credit resources up to the sum of USD16 million or its equivalent in other currencies.
The resources thus provided may be non-reimbursable by the territorial entities when they demonstrate the achievement of the goals of the organizational, tax, financial and administrative strengthening of the human resources that they have This is the subject of the respective conventions. The Ministry of Finance and Public Credit, through the Directorate of Fiscal Support, DAF, will certify the fulfillment of the goals of institutional strengthening agreed for the respective territorial entity.
ARTICLE 16. This law repeals Articles 13 of Act 185 of 1995 and 1or. of Law 419 of 1997, amends all provisions that are contrary to it and governs from the date of its promulgation.
The President of the honorable Senate of the Republic,
Luis Alfredo Ramos Botero.
The Secretary General of the honorable Senate of the Republic,
Emilio ramon Otero Dajud.
The President of the honorable House of Representatives,
William Velez Mesa.
The Secretary General of the honorable House of Representatives,
Angelino Lizcano Rivera.
COLOMBIA-NATIONAL GOVERNMENT
Publish and execute.
Dada en Bogotá, D. C., at 20 December 2002.
ALVARO URIBE VELEZ
The Minister of Finance and Public Credit,
Roberto Junguito Bonnet.
