The Comptroller’s Office’s findings in auditing the National Land Agency

The Comptroller General of the Republic (CGR) announced the results of an audit carried out on the National Land Agency (ANT) in 2023. The report is presented in a context in which nearly 2,000 peasants have demonstrated at the entity’s facilities to demand that the Government comply with past agreements with the peasant movement.

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Among the findings that the CGR notes in its report is the alleged lack of execution of 645 billion pesos which were transferred to an autonomous trust for the purchase of land. These resources were transferred with a view to meeting the target of 3 million hectares for the purchase of land through the Land Fund and for the formalization of 7 million hectares.

However, according to the document, at the end of that validity period “No legal transaction of sale was carried out, thereby showing an execution of resources without fulfilling the mission of the entity, as well as the purposes and objectives set forth in the National Development Plan.”

The text also mentions that “The transfer of resources to autonomous estates, in significant amounts, entails a passivity on their part and, therefore, that these are not directed in a timely and opportune manner to the satisfaction of goods and services, which in the case of the Agency is access to and purchase of land.”

Along the same lines, the control entity highlights that The ANT went from managing 1.8 billion pesos in 2022 to 5.2 billion in 2023which shows a significant increase in the resources allocated. Considering this amount and that the entity has the same administrative and operational capacity, it is noteworthy that this represents a risk for its effective and efficient management.

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Another of the irregularities that was detected in the audit has to do with the ANT asset inventory.

The above is associated with the fact that 55.6% of its assets correspond to resources delivered through association agreements and 36.7% of the total assets to properties acquired by the Agency and others that were transferred from entities such as the Special Assets Society (SAE) or the extinct Incoder or Incora.

“40 properties were found to have been transferred by the SAE to the National Land Agency, which were recorded with a zero value, as well as 287 properties to be awarded, through different resolutions, an incorrectness that is established as a significant uncertainty because it corresponds to the mission function of the entity and, material without determining the amount of the impact on the reasonableness of the financial statements, due to the impossibility of calculating their value”the CGR said.

In this regard, the ANT indicated that The SAE transferred those 40 properties free of charge and that they will only know their value when they are appraised. He also mentioned that “The zero value is due to an unreliable measurement of the properties, a circumstance that is not clear to this control body.”

Regarding the 287 properties that are also mentioned, the Comptroller’s Office indicated that they are affected “significantly the reasonableness of the financial statements.”

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The Comptroller’s Office indicated that it was identified that, while the Integrated Land System (SIT) is being implemented, the Activities associated with the inventory and registration of assets are being advanced by officials in an Excel file on One Drive.

In this sense, the entity indicated that this type of format “presents inconsistencies regarding the destination, identification and information of the properties” and warned that this situation generates “risks of loss of information and uncertainty regarding the inventory of properties, as well as the reliability of the tool used by the Agency for this purpose.”

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Regarding this issue, the control body indicated in its report that it was detected that there is no “supporting documents that prove the consultation with the Land Restitution Unit, regarding the fact that the properties in the process of being purchased were not included in the registry of forcibly abandoned and seized lands.”

By not having this requirement, public resources would be compromised by not having “with the verification of all the steps contemplated in the guidelines established to carry out said process.”

In addition to all of the above, the Comptroller’s Office questioned the overestimation of the creation of budget reserves by $43,410,225,854. In addition, it is mentioned that several of the budgetary commitments of the entity showed budget executions of less than 60%.

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BRIEFCASE
*With information from EL TIEMPO – JUSTICE