On the grounds of the Transparency and Public Ethics Programs introduced by Law 1474 of 2011 in its Article 73, as amended by Law 2195 of 2022 and CONPES D.C. 01 of 2019 ("Conpes 01") on "District Public Policy on Transparency, Integrity and No Tolerance for Corruption", on March 6, 2023, Empresa de Acueducto y Alcantarillado de Bogotá E.S.P. ("EAAB") adopted its anti-money laundering and financing of terrorism (“ML/FT”) risk management system
In 2011, Law 1474 of 2011 in its article 73 established the obligation of national and local public entities, related with annually developing strategies to fight corruption (“CO”).
After, Law 2195 of 2022, modified Law 1474 of 2011 and introduced the obligation of national and local public entities, to implement a Transparency and Public Ethics Program, which must include at least the following:
- Due diligence measures.
- Prevention of ML/FT risks, arms proliferation, and CO.
- Inter-institutional networks to strengthen the prevention of acts of CO, transparency, and legality.
- Whistleblower channels.
- Transparency strategies such as access to public information.
- Those additional initiatives are considered by the entity.
For the implementation of the Transparency and Public Ethics Program, the national, departmental, and municipal entities will have a maximum term of two (2) years, and the national entities with one (1) year, counted as of the publication of Law 2195 of 2022 (January 2022), so these terms will expire, for the local public entities, in 2024 and for the national public entities, in 2023.
Now, specifically in the fight against CO matters, Conpes 01, proposes four (4) components that seek to prevent and mitigate the negative impact of corrupt practices in the public and private sectors, as follows:
- Transparency:
- Advocacy in the instances of citizen participation.
- Articulation of information systems.
- Access to public information.
- Citizen service.
- Process of simplification, rationalization, elimination, and automation of procedures.
- Socialization and publicity of the accountability strategy.
2. Integrity:
- Sense of belonging and ownership of the public sector.
- Culture of citizenship and legality.
3. Anti-corruption measures:
- whistleblower protection channels.
- Definition of guidelines and/or preventive measures such as anti-corruption policies
and plans.
- Management of conflicts of interest.
- Anti-bribery practices in the private sector.
- CO victimization
- Sanctions
4. Institutional capacities:
- Internal control systems.
- Management of the district's human talent.
- Qualitative and quantitative studies on CO in the district.
- Institutional coordination and articulation.
- Guidelines for contract management.
With this in mind EAAB based its ML/FT risk management system, being one of the first state entities to implement a system of this nature, which, although it is mainly focused on ML/FT risk management, includes multiple relevant provisions related to due diligence and enhanced due diligence, internal and external reporting methodology, some provisions on conflicts of interest, sanctions, and inclusion of these guidelines in the company's contractual management.
The above shows how the regulations described have had an impact on the public sector, since after one (1) year since the issuance of Law 2195 of 2022, the compliance programs of companies of the public sector have begun to be published. The implementation of the EAAB ML/FT risk management system demonstrates leadership in the divulgation of policies in this area and shows the commitment made in relation to the rejection of these behaviors.
