CHAPTER X. OFFICE OF THE COMPTROLLER GENERAL OF THE REPUBLIC
ARTICLE 98
An autonomous body with the name of Office of the Comptroller General of the Republic shall exercise control over the legality of the accts of the Administration, will oversee the income and investment of funds from the Treasury, municipalities and other organisms and services that the laws determine; will review and judge the accounts of people who have been entrusted with goods from those entities; will be in charge of the general accounting of the Nation; and will perform the other functions that are assigned to it by the respective constitutional organic law.
The Comptroller General of the Republic must have held a Law degree for at least ten years; must have reached forty years of age and must possess the other qualities necessary to be a citizen with the right to vote. He will be designated by the President of the Republic with the agreement of the Senate adopted by three-fifths of its active members, for a period of eight years and he may not be designated for the next period. However, upon reaching 75 years of age he shall cease in office.
ARTICLE 99
In the exercise of the function of control of legality, the Comptroller General will approve all decrees and resolutions that, in accordance with the law, must be processed by the Office of the Comptroller General of the Republic or will object to the illegality which they may display; but he will have to process them when, despite his objection, the President of the Republic insists with the signature of all of his Ministers, in which case he shall send a copy of the respective decrees to the House of Representatives. In no event will he process the decrees of expenditure that exceed the limit specified in the Constitution and he will submit a complete copy of the record to the same House.
It shall also correspond to the Comptroller General of the Republic the register of the decrees with force of law, having to object them when they exceed or contravene the delegation law or are contrary to the Constitution.
If the objection has place with respect to a decree with force of law, a decree that promulgates a law or a constitutional amendment for departing from the approved text, or a decree or resolution for being contrary to the Constitution, the President of the Republic will not have the power to insist, and in the case that he is not satisfied with the objection of the Office of the Comptroller General of the Republic, he will have to forward the records to the Constitutional Court within ten days, so that this Court resolves the dispute.
As for the rest, the organization, functioning and powers of the Office of the Comptroller General of the Republic will be the subject of a constitutional organic law.
ARTICLE 100
The State Treasuries will not be able to make any payment except by virtue of a decree or resolution issued by competent authority, in which the law or the part of the budget that authorizes that expenditure is expressed. Payments will be made considering, in addition, the chronological order established in it and the previous budgetary countersignature of the document ordering the payment.
