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1617 OF 2013
(February 5)
Official Journal No. 48,695 of 5 February 2013
CONGRESS OF THE REPUBLIC
For which the Regime for Special Districts is issued.
COLOMBIA CONGRESS
DECRETA:
DISTRICT STRUCTURE, ORGANIZATION, AND OPERATION.
GENERAL PROVISIONS.
ARTICLE 1o. OBJECT OF THE LAW. This law contains the provisions that make up the Political, Administrative and Fiscal Statute of the districts. The purpose of this statute is to provide the districts with the powers, instruments and resources to enable them to carry out the functions and to provide the services to their office, as well as to promote the integral development of their territory to contribute to the improvement of the quality of life of its inhabitants, based on the use of their resources and advantages derived from the characteristics, conditions and special circumstances that they present.
ARTICLE 2o. APPLICABLE REGIME. The districts are territorial entities organized in accordance with the provisions of the Political Constitution, which are subject to a special regime, under which their organs and authorities have the power to special provisions other than those referred to in the ordinary scheme applicable to the other municipalities of the country, as well as that governing the other territorial entities established within the administrative political structure of the State
In any case, the special provisions will prevail over those of a general nature that make up the ordinary regime of the municipalities and/or the other territorial entities; but in those events not regulated by the special rules, or that they have not expressly referred to the provisions applicable to any of the other types of territorial entities, provided for in the Political Constitution, the law, nor to which the Capital District of Bogota is subject, they will be subject to the provisions laid down for municipalities.
PARAGRAFO. The provisions contained in this law apply to all districts created and created, except for the Capital District of Bogota.
ARTICLE 3o. PRINCIPLES. Districts exercise the powers conferred upon them by the Constitution and the law, in accordance with the principles laid down in the Organic Law of Territorial Ordinance, in Law 136 of 1994 and in the rules that modify, add or replace.
They must also abide by the postulates that govern the administrative function and regulate the conduct of public servants.
ARTICLE 4. AUTHORITY. The government and district administration are in charge of:
1. The District Council.
2. The District Mayor.
3. The Mayors and Local Administrative Boards.
4. The entities that the Council, at the initiative of the District Mayor, believes and organizes.
PARAGRAFO. They are control and surveillance agencies the District Person and District Comptroller.
ARTICLE 5o. COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION AND CITIZEN VEEDURIA. The district authorities will promote the organization of the inhabitants and communities of the district and stimulate the creation of the professional, cultural, civic, popular, Community and youth to serve as a mechanism for representation in the various instances of participation, consultation and monitoring of district and local management.
In accordance with or with the law, the council will dictate the rules necessary to ensure the validity of the institutions and mechanisms for citizen and community participation and, to stimulate and strengthen the procedures that guarantee the Citizens ' oversight in the face of administrative management and procurement.
PARAGRAFO. The districts will have a department for strengthening citizens ' oversight, with the support and participation of the control and surveillance agencies within the respective territorial scope.
ARTICLE 6o. AGREEMENTS OR CONTRACTS PLAN. The districts, may subscribe to Conventions or Contracts Plan in the framework of the laws and regulations in force.
ARTICLE 7o. The districts will have the power to hold Conventions or Plan Contracts with the Agustín Codazzi Geographic Institute (IGAC), to develop Real Market Observatories.
PARAGRAFO. The Agustin Codazzi Geographic Institute (IGAC) will supervise and provide technical assistance to the districts regarding the assembly and operation of these observatories.
DISTRICT CREATION, OPERATION, AND BOUNDARIES.
ARTICLE 8o. REQUIREMENTS FOR THE CREATION OF DISTRICTS. The law may decree the formation of new districts, provided that the following conditions are met:
1. That it has at least six hundred thousand (600,000) inhabitants, as certified by the National Administrative Department of Statistics (DANE) or located in coastal areas, have potential for the development of ports or for the tourism and culture, be municipality capital of department or border.
2. Preliminary and favorable concept of the desirability of creating the new district, presented jointly between the Special Commissions of the Follow-up to the Process of Decentralization and Territorial Ordinance of the Senate of the Republic and the Chamber of Representatives, and the Commission of Territorial Ordering as an advisory technical body, a concept that will be submitted to the plenary of the Senate of the Republic and the House of Representatives, respectively.
3. Previous and favorable concept of municipal councils.
PARAGRAFO 1o. Except for compliance with these requirements with those districts that have been recognized as such by the Constitution and the law or municipalities that have been declared a Historic Heritage of the Humanity by Unesco.
ARTICLE 9o. SETTING AND MODIFICATION OF DISTRICT BOUNDARIES. It is for the Special Commissions to follow up the process of Decentralization and Territorial Ordinance of the Senate of the Republic and the House of Representatives, the determination or modification of boundaries of districts other than the Capital District of Bogota, as well as the solution of border conflicts between a district and a municipality.
ARTICLE 10. OF THE COMPETENCIES OF THE AGUSTÍN CODAZZI GEOGRAPHICAL INSTITUTE (IGAC). The periodic examination of the boundaries of the district territorial entities will be done by the Geographic Institute Agustín Codazzi (IGAC), ex officio or at the request of the representative legal status of one, several or all the territorial entities concerned by a deslinde diligence. The IGAC will inform the Ministry of the Interior, both of its initiation and of the results of it.
In any case, the Congress of the Republic shall be the competent corporation to settle the border dispute between a district and another territorial entity.
PARAGRAFO 1o. Understand the operation by which they identify, require, and update on a map the descriptive elements of the limits related to the normative texts, or lack of these, those consecrated by tradition.
PARAGRAFO 2o. When the descriptions contained in the normative texts are clear and unmistakably identifiable in the mapping, the confrontation of such instruments will suffice. The results shall be recorded in a statement of unlinde and in the mapping. In this case field recognition will not be required.
ARTICLE 11. PROCEDURE FOR DESLINDE. To perform the district unlinde will proceed as follows:
1. The Agustin Codazzi Geographical Institute, by resolution, shall declare the deslinde initiated, designate the official to practice it and notify the parties date and place of commencement of the diligence.
2. The commission of deslinde will be composed of an official of the Geographic Institute Agustin Codazzi, who will preside, and by the legal representatives of the neighboring territorial entities or a delegate of each one of them.
3. The diligence of unlinde will be initiated by the consideration of all the normative and evidentiary elements in relation to the existing mapping, to reach an agreement between the territorial entities will be terminated.
4. The official of the Geographic Institute Agustin Codazzi, will do the dislinde directly on the ground, in the presence of the legal representatives of each one of the territorial entities involved, based on the interpretation of the texts regulations in force, and in the absence of these in tradition.
5. The result of the diligence shall be recorded in a statement of unlinde and on a map, either unanimous or different from the opinion of the parties. Partial agreements will not be objectionable subsequently.
ARTICLE 12. FORMAL DEFINITION OF THE LIMIT. Where the limit examined on the ground or in the case of an office is not in doubt, it shall be in accordance with the applicable standard or its description is contained in the agreement in the act of deslinde underwritten by the legal representatives or delegates of the territorial entities involved shall be considered as a final limit when such minutes are approved by the administrative act by the governor concerned.
PARAGRAFO. The administrative act referred to in this Article shall be issued within three months of receipt of the file. Upon completion of this term, the limit contained in the unlinde act, signed in agreement, shall be considered as a provisional limit and shall have all legal effects.
ARTICLE 13. TRADITIONAL LIMIT. It is understood by traditional limit that the community and the authorities of the neighbouring territorial authorities have not been established by a description contained in any normative text.
In this case, during the deslination, the elements of the trial will be evaluated that are made up of the file, among others, and especially those related to the creation of corregimientos and police inspections and communal action boards, the registration of the pregod in the register, the cartographic, census and electoral tradition.
ARTICLE 14. INDOUBT OPERATION DE DESLINDE. When doubts are raised during the operation of the dislinde and no consensus is obtained on the identification of the limit on the ground, the record of the dissension on the disagreement will be recorded and the boundary line intended by each adjoining.
ARTICLE 15. CONSTITUTION OF DOUBTFUL LIMIT. The legal representatives of each of the neighboring territorial entities will make it to the Geographic Institute Agustín Codazzi, in a term of three (3) months, all the evidence and testimonies that support their position.
ARTICLE 16. INDOUBT PROCESSING AND SOLUTION. To fix these cases, the following procedure will follow:
1. If this is a dubious limit on which an indigenous territorial entity is involved, the file shall be referred to the Ministry of the Interior for defining it, in accordance with the procedure to be agreed with its representatives.
2. If it is a doubtful limit in which some district with another municipality is involved, the Congress of the Republic through the committees demarcating that for such effects they integrate the commissions of territorial law of the Senate and the Chamber define by law the controversy.
3. The limit ratified by the Senate and the House shall be deemed to be defined and shall have the following legal effects.
ARTICLE 17. PROVISIONAL LIMIT ADOPTION. Where the competent authority to unsettle disputes or to define the doubtful limit, it shall not do so within the year following the date of the application of the limits file, the layout proposed by the Institute Geographical Agustin Codazzi, will be adopted as a provisional limit and will take up all legal effects until when the deslinde is approved in the form prevented by the law.
Likewise, for all legal effects, the inlinde that the Geographic Institute Agustin Codazzi will make autonomously and formalize it by resolution shall be considered as an interim limit, when the Institute has been summoned by the Institute, one or both parties do not attend two calls for unlinde measures.
ARTICLE 18. MODIFICATION OF LIMITS. To modify district boundaries, the following requirements and conditions must be met:
1. The respective bill may be presented at the initiative of the National Government or the members of the Congress of the Republic. However, the National Government will be obliged to present it when it so decides, by means of popular consultation, the majority of citizens resident in the territory to be segregated.
2. If there is no popular consultation, the National Government must convene it so that citizens living in the conflict territory will manifest their majority will for the corresponding annexation.
3. The Agustin Codazzi Geographic Institute will carry out in the respective departmental or district conflict zone a historical and technical investigation in order to verify and certify by documented and written study that definitively in the Territorial, social, cultural or economic identity problems that make it advisable to annex territorial areas are presented.
PARAGRAFO. Both the popular query and the study referred to by the second and third numerals, respectively, of this article, must be added to the respective bill's explanatory statement.
ARTICLE 19. PUBLICATION OF THE OFFICIAL MAP. Defined the boundary of the district, the publication of the respective official map by the Geographic Institute Agustin Codazzi and its amojoning in the field.
ARTICLE 20. AMOJONAMIENTO. The points characteristic of the boundaries of the territorial entities must be materialized by means of mojones or any other visible and lasting sign, and georeferenced by means of flat or geographic coordinates. The amojoning will consist of minutes signed by the legal representatives of the neighboring territorial entities or their delegates, and by the official of the Geographic Institute, Agustín Codazzi, who is in charge of the diligence.
PARAGRAFO. The costs of materialization of the limit will be borne by the territorial entities involved.
TERRITORIAL DEVELOPMENT AND ORDERING.
ARTICLE 21. DISTRICT DEVELOPMENT PLAN. The district administration will count during the period of government with a Development Plan drawn up in accordance with the constitutional and legal principles in force. The District Development Plan shall be the axis on which the other sectoral plans of the district shall be formulated and developed.
Districts will develop the District Development Plans in accordance with the Departmental Development Plan and in harmony with the National Development Plan, according to the organic law of the matter.
PARAGRAFO. If the Departmental Development Plan includes actions or projects in the district territory, they must be pre-arranged with the district mayor.
ARTICLE 22. APPLICABLE REGIME. They are applicable to the districts in matters of development and territorial planning, in addition to the constitutional provisions, the Organic Law of the National Development Plan, the Organic Law of Territorial Ordinance, the Law Organic Areas of Metropolitan Areas, the Law of Territorial Development and the Law of the Environmental National System.
ARTICLE 23. DISTRICT TERRITORIAL PLANNING PLAN. The territorial arrangement comprises the set of political-administrative and physical planning actions, undertaken by the district in the exercise of the public function that it is responsible for within the limits set by the Constitution and the law and in order to have efficient instruments to guide the territorial law in its jurisdiction.
It is up to the district mayor to advance the procedures related to the formulation and process of adoption of the District Territorial Planning Plan, prior to his presentation to the district council for approval.
The content of the Territorial Ordering Plans, as well as the procedure for their formulation and adoption shall be governed by the provisions of this Law, in the Laws 388 of 1997 and 902 2004 or the rules that add, modify, or replace your regulatory decrees.
PARAGRAFO. The District Territorial Planning Plan will respect the rights acquired prior to this law, in terms of uses of soils, except for land that may be administratively expropriated, by means of forced disposal.
ARTICLE 24. URBAN PLANNING, LICENSING AND SANCTIONS. The urban planning, study, processing and issuing of the urban planning licenses, and the regime of infractions and urban sanctions in the district, will be governed by the provisions of the contained in Acts 388 of 1997 and 810 of 2003 or the rules that add, modify or replace, their regulatory decrees, and other existing provisions.
PARAGRAFO. All those processes of issuing urban licenses and of the regime of infractions and urban sanctions, which originate after this law, will respect the acquired rights in the field of land use, except those that have been declared as Urban Action Units and have been included in the Territorial Planning Plan District.
DISTRICT ADMINISTRATIVE AND POLITICAL ORGANIZATION.
THE DISTRICT COUNCIL.
ARTICLE 25. GENERAL FUNCTIONS. The district council is a political-administrative corporation popularly elected for a period of four (4) years. In administrative matters, its powers are of a normative nature. It is also up to him to monitor and control politically the management that the district authorities meet.
ARTICLE 26. ATTRIBUTIONS. The district councils will exercise the powers that the Constitution and the laws attribute to the municipal councils.
Additionally, they will exercise the following special attributions:
1. To issue, in accordance with the Constitution and the law, the rules based on which the activities of tourism, recreational, cultural, sports on beaches and other public spaces will be regulated, with the exception of Download.
2. Dictate, subject to the Constitution and the law, the necessary standards to ensure the preservation and defense of ecological heritage, natural resources, public space and the environment with criteria for adaptation to climate change.
3. Tax the construction, buildings or any kind of improvement on public goods of the Nation, when they are in the hands of private individuals.
The particular occupants will be responsible for this tribute.
The payment of this tax does not generate any rights on the occupied land.
4. Divide the territory of the district into localities, assign them competencies and ensure their functioning and resources. Within twelve (12) months following the creation of the respective district, the district council will comply with this attribution.
5. To issue, in accordance with the Constitution and the law, the rules on the basis of which the activities of tourism, recreational, cultural, sports, and public spaces will be regulated.
6. Determine the systems and methods on the basis of which local Administrative Boards may establish the collection of rights for the use of public space to carry out cultural, sporting, recreational, games, shows and other activities to be organised in the localities.
7. To lay down rules to ensure decentralization, deconcentration, participation and citizen oversight in the district's public affairs.
8. Regulate the preservation and defense of the district's cultural heritage.
9. Promote and stimulate the construction industry, especially housing industry, by verifying compliance with land use standards, and the proper provision of public services.
10. Monitor the execution of district contracts.
11. To harmonize the district norms regarding the care and control of the displaced population with respect to the law that governs.
ARTICLE 27. INITIATIVE. The projects of agreement can be presented by the councilors and the district mayor through their secretaries, heads of administrative department or legal representatives of the decentralized entities. The person, the comptroller and the administrative boards can present them in matters related to their attributions.
ARTICLE 28. POLITICO CONTROL. In compliance with the functions of surveillance and control that it is appropriate to exercise to the district councils on the other organs and authorities of the district administration in relation to the performance of their functions, these They will be able to cite the secretaries of the district administration, local mayors, directors of district administrative departments or managers and heads of district decentralized entities, as well as the individual and the district comptroller. Citations must be made in advance not less than five (5) working days and be submitted in written form. In the three (3) days following receipt of the summons, the quoted official must be in the general secretariat of the corporation the answer to the questionnaire in written or magnetic medium. The debate subject to the subpoena will lead the session agenda and will not be extended to non-questionnaire matters.
In the same way, they may invite the managers or sectional heads of the national entities that have jurisdiction in the respective districts.
PARAGRAFO. The district council or its commissions may also request written information from the other district authorities, calling them for special session to give statements on related facts. with the matters that the corporation investigates or is the subject of its study and regulation or with matters related to the district administration. The council, in the face of the authorities ' reluctance or refusal, to attend to the subpoenas or to render the requested reports on the dates provided for, will give the fact to the Attorney General's Office, for the purposes of its jurisdiction. In the case of natural or legal persons, the provisions of the Code of Civil Procedure shall apply. They may refrain from attending only on justified grounds.
ARTICLE 29. MOTION OF OBSERVATIONS. In the exercise of its functions of political control, the district councils may make a motion of observations in respect of the acts of the officials on whom this control is exercised, in those events in which after examination of the actions or measures taken by the cited official, it is found that, in the judgment of the corporation, they do not satisfy the purposes of the public function in general and in particular the interests of the district as such or of its community.
Concluded the debate, its promoter or the aldermen who consider it appropriate to formulate the motion of observations with respect to the actions of the cited official must present the corresponding application for their approval or rejection by the plenary session of the district council in session to be held between the third and the tenth day following the end of the debate. In order to be approved, the motion of observations requires a favorable vote of two thirds (2/ 3) of its members. Once this happens, if the contested decision is an administrative or police act that can be revoked directly without the acceptance of individuals, the official will be obliged to proceed in that way. If this is not possible, the official will be obliged to initiate the judicial proceedings to the recall.
DISTRICT MAYOR.
ARTICLE 30. REQUIREMENTS TO BE DISTRICT MAYOR. To be elected district mayor, it is required to be a Colombian citizen in exercise and to be born or resident in the respective district or the corresponding metropolitan area for one (1) year prior to the date of registration or for a minimum period of three (3) consecutive years at any time.
ARTICLE 31. PRINCIPAL ATTRIBUTIONS. In addition to the functions assigned in the Constitution, the law and district agreements, the district mayor within the jurisdiction of his district is responsible for exercising the following powers:
1. To guide the administrative action of the authorities and district dependencies towards the integral territorial development, considered as a determining factor in order to promote the economic development and social improvement of the population of the respective district.
2. The implementation of these policies shall be coordinated among the officials of the district, departmental and national institutions that are located in the jurisdiction of the district, in the special areas according to their vocation, whether they are public or private, in such cases seeking community participation.
3. To present draft agreements on plans or programs for economic and social development and public works, with emphasis on those that are of particular interest to the district, according to their vocation.
4. To promote mechanisms that allow the district, in exercise of its autonomy, to promote local development through integration and association figures that harmonize the district's development plans with the other territorial entities, generating economies of scale that promote competitiveness.
5. Boost economic growth and ensure fiscal sustainability, social equity and environmental sustainability in the district to ensure adequate living conditions for the population.
6. Promote the coordination and concurrency of the Nation, the territorial entities, the environmental authorities and the administrative and planning authorities and authorities, in the fulfilment of the constitutional and legal obligations in territorial matter, in order to achieve the improvement of district management. In particular, contribute within its jurisdiction to the deployment of infrastructure to achieve national development and competitiveness in accordance with the provisions of the District Development Plan and the National Development Plan.
7. Promote, orient and develop the territorial order in their jurisdiction.
8. Advance risk management with criteria for adaptation to climate change.
PARAGRAFO. When in exercise of their constitutional or legal powers some authority, agency or entity must perform actions that involve intervention in the territory of the respective district, coordinate and agree with the district mayor. In the event of disagreement or opposition of the mayor, the relevant authorities shall be accused of the nature of the case and of the entities or bodies concerned.
ARTICLE 32. PRESIDENTIAL CONTEST FOR THE REPLACEMENT DESIGNATION. The President of the Republic shall be the competent authority to make the suspension or removal effective, designate his replacement and appoint the mayor in charge, in a term not greater than Thirty (30) days, in cases of temporary vacancy. In case of absolute vacancy call elections to elect the new district mayor, in a term not exceeding ninety (90) days when it comes from.
In all cases where it is the case of the President of the Republic to designate the replacement of the mayor, he must choose a citizen belonging to the same party or political movement of the incumbent, according to the procedure established by law.
DISTRICT DECENTRALIZED ENTITIES.
ARTICLE 33. The decentralized entities of the district order will be subject to the rules contained in the Constitution, Law 489 of 1998 and the other provisions that the modify or regulate, as well as those within their respective competencies, to issue the district councils with regard to their definition, characteristics, organization and operation.
LOCALITIES.
ARTICLE 34. The districts will be divided into localities, according to the social characteristics of their inhabitants, with relative homogeneity from the geographical, social, cultural and economic.
ARTICLE 35. OBJECTIVES AND PURPOSES. The territorial division of the district in localities shall ensure:
1. That the community or communities that reside in them are organized, expressed institutionally and contribute to the improvement of their conditions and quality of life.
2. The effective participation of the citizenry in the management, management and delivery of public services, the construction of works of common interest and the exercise of the functions that correspond to the authorities. Such participation should also take place in the oversight and oversight of those who fulfill such privileges, and citizen participation in the definition of community priorities in the elaboration of the district budget.
3. That the localities may be assigned the exercise of certain functions, the construction of the works and the provision of the services when it contributes to the best delivery of these services, promoting their improvement and progress economic and social.
4. They also serve as a framework for them to be decentralised territorially and to de-concentrate the provision of services.
5. The proper development of the economic and social activities that are carried out in each of them.
ARTICLE 36. DISTRICT AND LOCAL AUTHORITIES. Each locality shall be subject, in the terms laid down in this law and the district agreements, to the authority of the district mayor, a managing board and the respective local mayor.
The local authorities are responsible for the management of their territory's own affairs, and for the district authorities to ensure the harmonious and integrated development and management of the territorial entity.
ARTICLE 37. CREATION OF LOCALITIES. The district council, on the initiative of the district mayor, shall indicate to the localities its name, limits and administrative powers, and shall dictate the other provisions necessary for its organization and operation. For this purpose you should consider:
1. The coverage of basic, community and institutional services, and
2. The social characteristics of its inhabitants and other aspects that identify localities.
TRANSIENT PARAGRAPH. Within twelve (12) months following the enactment of this law, the administrations of the districts of Buenaventura and Santa Marta must submit to the respective district councils. projects for the division of their territories, and shall propose to them the localities, their names, limits and administrative powers, as well as any other provisions necessary for their organization and operation. District councils will have a two (2) month term to deal with and approve the agreement from their formal delivery.
ARTICLE 38. DIVISION OF POWERS. The district council, on the initiative of the district mayor, will make the distribution of administrative functions and functions between the district and local authorities, taking into account the principles of concurrency, subsidiarity and complementarity, and the following general criteria:
1. The allocation of powers to local authorities will seek a greater degree of efficiency in the provision of services.
2. The exercise of functions by local authorities should implement the goals and provisions of the General Development Plan.
3. The allocation and delegation of powers should avoid duplication of administrative functions and organisations.
4. No responsibilities may be established without prior allocation of the necessary resources for their attention.
LOCAL MAYORS.
ARTICLE 39. Each locality will have a local mayor, who will be appointed by the district mayor of terna, elaborated by the corresponding Local Administrative Board, in public assembly, cited by the mayor district and that it must have a quorum with no less than eighty percent (80%) of its members.
For the integration of the terna the electoral quotient system will be used.
After the creation of the localities, the district mayor in a term no greater than two (2) months will make the first summons to such an assembly and in successive periods of subsequent district administrations, will be made within the first two (2) months after the possession of each district mayor.
