TITLE IX. PUBLIC FINANCES
Chapter 1. Properties and Rights of the State
Article 257
The following belong to the State:
- Properties existing in the territory that belonged to the Republic of Colombia;
- Rights and actions which the Republic of Colombia possessed as owner, inside or outside of the Country, by reason of sovereignty that it exercised over the territory of the Isthmus of Panama;
- Properties, revenues, estates, securities, rights, and actions which pertained to the extinct Department of Panama;
- Vacant and free lands;
- The subsoil, which could be exploited by State or Mixed enterprises or may be the object of concessions or contracts for the exploitation of its resources, as established by law.Mining rights granted and not exercised within the period and conditions fixed by law, will revert to the State;
- Salt works, mines, underground and thermal waters, hydrocarbons, quarries, and deposits of all kinds, which may not be the object of private appropriation but may be exploited directly by the State, through State or Mixed enterprises, or to be the subject of concessions, or other contracts for operation by private enterprises. Regulation of all matters pertaining to the various forms of exploitations shall be determined by law;
- Historical monuments, documents and other assets which are evidences of the past history of the Republic. The procedure by which they will revert to the State when held by private parties under any title shall be determined by law;
- Archaeological sites and objects, the exploration, study and restoration of which shall be regulated by law.
Article 258
The following belong to the State and are of public use and therefore may not be the object of private appropriation:
- Territorial sea, lake and river waters, the shores and banks of same and of navigable rivers and ports and estuaries. All these properties are of free and common benefit, subject to the regulations established by law;
- Lands and waters destined for public services and all kinds of communications;
- Lands and waters designated, or that the State may designate, for public irrigation services, hydroelectric production, drainage and aqueducts;
- Air space, the undersea continental shelf, the bed and subsoil of the territorial sea;
- All other properties defined by law for public use.
In all cases in which property of private ownership is converted by law into property for public use, the owner thereof shall be compensated.
Article 259
Concessions for the exploitation of the soil, subsoil, forests and for utilization of waters, means of communications or transportation, and for other public service undertakings, shall be inspired by social welfare and public interest.
Article 260
All artistic and historical wealth of the country constitutes the Cultural Heritage of the Republic and will be under the guardianship of the State which may prohibit its destruction, exportation or transmission.
Article 261
The power of issuing money belongs to the State, which may transfer it to official banks of issue in the manner determined by law.
Article 262
There shall not be in the Republic paper money of legal tender.
Article 263
There shall be created and regulated by law official or semi-official banks which function as Autonomous Entities supervised by the State. Subsidiary responsibilities of the State shall be established by law with respect to the obligations assumed by these banks. The banking regime shall be regulated by law.
Article 264
By law, all taxes imposed upon the taxpayer shall be, as far as possible, in direct proportion to his/her economic capacity, subject to the need to receive public funds and protect domestic production.
Article 265
There may be established by law, for revenue purposes, official monopolies on imported articles or those not produced in the country.
Upon the establishment of a monopoly by virtue of which any person is deprived of the right to engage in a lawful business or industry, the State shall compensate in advance those persons or enterprises whose businesses have been expropriated under the terms of this Article.
Article 266
The execution or repair of National works, purchases made from State funds or funds of its Autonomous or Semi-autonomous Entities or of the Municipalities, and the sale or lease of property belonging thereto, shall be effected by public bidding except in the cases specified by law.
Measures shall be established by law to ensure in all bidding the maximum benefit to the State and full justice in the award.
Chapter 2. The General Budget of the State
Article 267
The Executive Branch is responsible for planning the projected Budget of State and the National Assembly is responsible for its examination, modification, rejection or approval.
Article 268
The Budget shall be annual and shall contain the total investments, revenues and expenditures of the Public, which includes Autonomous and Semi-autonomous Entities and State Enterprises.
Article 269
The Executive Branch will hold budgetary consultation with different dependencies and entities of the State. The Budget Committee of the National Assembly will participate in such consultations.
Article 270
In the Budget planned by the Executive Branch, expenditures shall be balanced with revenues
Article 271
The National Assembly may eliminate or reduce amounts of expenditures provided for in the projected Budget, except those meant for payment of the public debt, in fulfillment of other State contractual obligations and the financing of public investments previously authorized by law.
The National Assembly may not increase expenditures described in the projected Budget, or include a new expenditure without the approval of the Cabinet Council, nor add to total revenues without the agreement of the Comptroller General of the Republic.
If, according to that which is established in this Article, total revenues are increased or portions of expenditures are eliminated or reduced, the National Assembly shall use such available monies for other expenses, or investments, after obtaining approval from the Cabinet Council.
Article 272
If the projected General Budget of State does not receive final approval (by the National Assembly) by the first day of the new Fiscal Year, the Budget as proposed by the Executive Branch shall enter into force, adopted by decision of the Cabinet Council.
Article 273
If the National Assembly rejects the projected General Budget of State, the Budget immediately preceding shall be automatically extended until a new Budget is approved, and also, the amounts in the rejected Budget, designated for the payment of the public debt, fulfillment of other State contractual obligations, and financing public investments previously authorized by law, shall be automatically approved.
Article 274
Any supplementary or extraordinary appropriations, with reference to the present Budget can be requested by the Executive Branch and approved by the National Assembly in the manner designated by law.
Article 275
If at any time of the [budget] year the Executive Branch has reason to believe that the total amount of available income is inferior to the total amount of expenditures authorized in the General State Budget, it shall adopt an expenditure adjustment plan, to be approved in accordance with the provisions of the law.
The adjustments to the budgets of the Legislative and Judicial Branches, the Public Ministry, the Electoral Tribunal, the Office of Ombudsman and the Office of Comptroller General of the Republic will not be superior in percentage points to the adjustment of the General Budget for any of these institutions, and affect the expenditure items indicated by them.
Article 276
The National Assembly shall not issue laws that eliminate or modify those that establish revenues included in the Budget without, at the same time, establishing new revenues in their place or increasing those in existence, with previous information to the General Comptrollership of the Republic about the fiscal efficiency of said Laws.
Article 277
No public payment can be made that has not been authorized pursuant to the Constitution or the Law. Neither can any credit be transferred to an item not provided in the respective Budget.
Article 278
All amounts entered and issued from the public treasury shall be included and authorized in the respective Budget. No entries shall be perceived due to taxes that the law has not established nor there shall be paid any expenses not provided in the Budget.
Chapter 3. General Comptrollership of the Republic
Article 279
There shall be an independent state organism called the Office of Comptroller General of the Republic whose direction shall be entrusted to a public official called the Comptroller, seconded by an Assistant Comptroller, who shall be appointed for the same term as the President of the Republic during which they may suspended or removed from office only by the Supreme Court of Justice for one of the causes defined by the law. Both shall be appointed in such a manner that they can assume their functions on the first day of January which follows the start of the ordinary presidential term.
In order to be Comptroller and Assistant Comptroller of the Republic it is necessary to be a Panamanian citizen by birth; to have a university degree and thirty-five years or more of age and not to have been sentenced to a prison term of five or more years for a premeditated offence by enforceable decision of a court of law.
Article 280
The following are functions of the General Comptrollership of the Republic, in addition to those stated by the law:
- To keep national accounts, including those concerning internal and external debts;
- To investigate and regulate, by means of prior and subsequent control, all management activities with regard to funds and other public properties, in order to ensure their proper performance in accordance with the provisions of the law.The Office of the Comptroller shall determine the cases in which it will exercise prior and subsequent control over management of funds, as well as those in which it will only exercise the latter;
- To examine, audit and close the accounts of public employees, entities or persons who administer, manage or supervise funds or other public property. Matters related to criminal responsibility fall within the jurisdiction of courts;
- To conduct inspections and investigations to determine the regularity or irregularity of operations affecting public assets and if appropriate, to present the corresponding complaints;
- To request from public employees reports on the fiscal management of national, provincial, municipal, autonomous or semi-autonomous public institutions and State enterprises;
- To adopt and promote the adoption of measures necessary to make effective the credits provided to public entities;
- To ask for a review of unconstitutionality or illegality, according to the case, of laws and other acts violating the Constitution or the laws which affect public assets;
- To establish accounting systems for the public entities mentioned in numeral 5 of this Article;
- To inform the National Assembly and the Executive Branch about the financial state of the public administration and to submit opinions on the feasibility and convenience of providing supplementary or extraordinary appropriations;
- To direct and compile National statistics;
- To appoint employees in its departments in accordance with this Constitution and by law;
- To submit to the Executive Branch and National Assembly an annual report on its activities;
- To examine the accounts of agents and management personnel, when such accounts are objected to because of supposed irregularities;
- To submit for judgment of the Audit Tribunal the accounts of public agents and servants when they are subject to objection because of supposed irregularities.
Chapter 4. Audit Tribunal (Tribunal de Cuentas
Article 281
An audit jurisdiction is established as a national jurisdiction to pass judgment on the accounts of agents and employees managing public funds in cases where objections arise because of supposed irregularities.
The Audit Tribunal shall be composed of three justices who are appointed for a term of ten years in the following manner: one by the Legislative Branch, one by the Executive Branch and the third by the Judicial Branch.
The law shall determine the establishment and functioning of the Tribunal.
