The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) has approved a $30 million loan to finance the digital transformation of the Office of the Comptroller General of the Republic of Colombia (CGR). The operation seeks to boost both the CGR’s effectiveness in the exercise of oversight and opportunities for citizen participation.

The program will support a number of activities aimed at improving CGR productivity, including development and implementation of a digital transformation strategy and of a data governance model, and setting standards enabling data disaggregation based on gender and diversity of indigenous peoples, Afro-Colombians, persons with disabilities, and other diverse populations.

It will also strengthen the CGR’s ability to conduct more effective oversight by adopting digital tools, including implementing a system for monitoring, tracking, control, and evaluation of the fiscal oversight cycle for decision-making; developing a georeferenced map for fiscal oversight; and implementing mechanisms for remote fiscal oversight.

The program will also include the design and implementation of an inclusive strategy for citizen services, relationship building, and participation to close gender and diversity gaps; the adoption of a methodology to audit Sustainable Development Goals compliance; and the design and implementation of a strategy to strengthen integrity control, among other actions.

The main beneficiaries will be citizens at large, who stand to gain from the savings generated by more timely and effective CGR interventions in the fiscal oversight cycle, as well as from more opportunities to participate in this cycle. In particular, beneficiaries will include women, indigenous peoples, Afro-Colombians, persons with disabilities, and other diverse populations. 

Other beneficiaries will include entities subject to oversight, which will be able to use their resources more efficiently, and national and subnational public entities, which will benefit from the exercise of improved fiscal oversight.  

This operation is in line with Vision 2025 – Reinvesting in the Americas: A Decade of Opportunities, created by the IDB to achieve recovery and inclusive growth in Latin America and the Caribbean in the areas of digital economy, gender and inclusion, and climate change. 

The $30 million IDB loan is for a 24-year term, with a six and a half year grace period.