490.1. The Comptroller General’s Office will have the following powers:

a) To set the criteria for carrying out the hearings, procedures, methods and systems necessary for the revision and auditing of the resources of the areas and bodies of the Institute;

b) To establish the rules, procedures, methods and systems for the accounting and the archiving, of the justifying and supporting books and documents of the income and expenditure, as well as those elements that allow the best practice of the audits and reviews, which it carries out in the fulfillment of its functions;

c) To assess the progress reports of the financial management regarding the authorized programs and the programs relating to concluded processes;

d) To assess the compliance with the objectives and targets established in the programs of an administrative nature included in the expenditure budget of the Institute;

e) To verify that the various administrative areas of the Institute which receive, handle, administer or apply resources do so in accordance with the applicable regulations, the approved programs and authorized amounts, as well as, in the case of the expenditure, discount them from the corresponding budget item in accordance with the applicable legal, regulatory and administrative provisions;

f) To review that the budgetary operations made by the Institute are done in accordance with the legal and administrative regulations applicable to these issues;

g) To check the works, purchased or leased goods and contracted services to confirm that the authorized investments and expenditures have been implemented legally and ef f ciently for the achievement of the objectives and goals of the approved programs;

h) To require the information related to the respectively justifying and supporting documents from third parties who have contracted goods or services from the Institute, in order to prepare the corresponding attested copies;

i) To request and obtain the information necessary for the fulfillment of its functions. As regards the information relating to any type of operation provided by the credit institutions, the obligation to keep the confidentiality referred to in the regulatory provisions on transparency and access to public information will be applicable to all public servants of the Comptroller General’s Of f ce of the Institute, as well as to the professionals recruited for the audit practices;

j) To issue the guidelines, to instruct, examine and resolve the administrative procedures regarding the complaints that are lodged against the public servants of the Institute, and to keep a register of the sanctioned public servants;

k) To investigate, in its area of competence, the actions or omissions that imply an irregularity or unlawful conduct in the income, expenditure, handling, custody and use of funds and resources of the Institute;

l) To directly receive complaints and reports related to the use and disposal of the income and resources of the Institute by its public servants and to settle the appropriate procedures;

m) To make visits to the physical headquarters of the areas and bodies of the Institute to request the display of the books and papers that are indispensable for the realization of its investigations, subjecting itself to the respective formalities;

n) To establish the orientation mechanisms and training courses which are necessary so that the public servants of the Institute adequately comply with their administrative responsibilities;

ñ) To make observation statements in administrative matters;

o) To determine the damages and losses that affect the Institute in its assets and to establish the compensations and f nancial sanctions directly to those responsible;

p) To establish the responsibilities and to impose sanctions in terms of the respective guidelines;

q) To submit its annual work programs for the approval of the General Council;

r) To present the preliminary and annual reports of the results of its management to the General Council, and to appear before the same Council when this is required by the President Councilor;

s) To participate, through its head, with the right to speak but not to vote, in the meetings of the General Executive Board when the President Councilor deems it necessary for the exercise of its powers;

t) To receive and safeguard the declarations of assets that public servants of the Institute must present, from the level of department head, in accordance with the formats and procedures established by the Comptroller General’s Office itself. The rules established in the Law on the matter will apply where appropriate;

u) To intervene in the corresponding processes of delivery-reception due to the start or conclusion of of f ce of the public servants, and

v) The other powers given to it by this Law or the applicable laws on this matter.