Título V. Administracion municipal

The municipality, for the management of its interests and within the scope of its competencies, may promote all kinds of economic, social, cultural, and environmental activities, and provide such services as contribute to improving the quality of life, to satisfying the needs and aspirations of the population of the municipality.

The own competencies shall be performed by the municipality, by two or more municipalities under agreement, or by an association of municipalities, and are the following:

a)Residential supply of duly chlorinated drinking water; sewerage; public lighting; markets; slaughterhouses; administration of cemeteries and the authorization and control of private cemeteries; cleaning and beautification; to formulate and coordinate policies, plans and programs relating to the collection, treatment and final disposal of waste and solid residues up to its final disposal;

a)Paving of urban public roadways and upkeep thereof;

b)Regulation of passenger and freight transport, and its local terminals;

c)Authorization of megaphones or sound equipment exposed to the public in the circumscription of the municipality;

d)To administer the public library of the municipality;

e)Promotion and management of parks, gardens and places of recreation;

f)Management and administration of popular municipal pharmacies;

g)Provision of the municipal police service;

h)When its financial and technical condition allows it, to generate the electrical energy necessary to cover municipal and private consumption;

i)To delimit the area or areas that within the perimeter of its population centers may be authorized for the operation of the following establishments: sale of food and beverages, lodging, hygiene or personal care, recreation, culture and others which by their nature are open to the public;

j)Development of permanent municipal forest nurseries, for the purpose of reforesting the basins of rivers, lakes, ecological reserves and other areas of its territorial circumscription to protect life, health, biodiversity, natural resources, water sources and to combat global warming;

k)Those for which, by mandate of law, ownership of the competence is transferred to it in the decentralization process of the Executive Branch; and,

l)Authorization of construction, modification and demolition licenses for public or private works, in the circumscription of the municipality.

The Central Government or other public agencies may, in coordination with municipal development plans, programs and projects, provide local services when the municipality so requests.

The municipality shall exercise competencies by delegation on the terms established by law and the corresponding agreements, in view of the characteristics of the public activity in question and the management capacity of the municipal government, in accordance with the priorities of decentralization, deconcentration and bringing public services closer to citizens. Such competencies may include, among others:

a)Construction and maintenance of access roads within the municipal circumscription;

b)Ensuring compliance with and observance of sanitary control standards for the production, marketing and consumption of food and beverages, in order to guarantee the health of the inhabitants of the municipality;

c)Management of pre-primary and primary education, as well as literacy and bilingual education programs;

d)Promotion and environmental management of the natural resources of the municipality;

e)Construction and maintenance of school buildings; and,

f)Execution of preventive health programs and projects.

The effectiveness of the delegation shall require its acceptance by the interested municipality; in any case, the delegation must necessarily be accompanied by the provision or the increase of the resources necessary to perform it, without detriment to municipal autonomy.

The municipality must regulate and provide the municipal public services within its territorial circumscription and, therefore, has authority to establish, maintain, expand and improve them, under the terms indicated in the preceding articles, guaranteeing effective, safe and continuous operation and, where applicable, the determination and collection of equitable and just fees and contributions. Fees and contributions shall be set taking into account the costs of operation, maintenance and improvement of quality and coverage of services.

Municipal public services shall be provided and administered by:

a)The municipality and its administrative dependencies, service units and public enterprises;

b)The association of municipalities in accordance with jointly agreed regulations;

c)Concessions granted in accordance with the rules contained in this Code, the State Contracting Law and Municipal Regulations.

The municipality has the power to grant to natural or legal persons the concession for the provision of municipal public services operating within its territorial jurisdiction, with the exception of collection centers, wholesale terminals, municipal markets and similar facilities, by means of a contract governed by public law and for a fixed term, in which the nature and conditions of the service and the operating guarantees referred to in Article 75 of this Code shall be established. Likewise, it shall be stipulated that the municipal regulation for the provision of the service forms part of the concession contract.

In any case, the term of duration of the concession may not exceed twenty-five (25) years; it may be extendable. The term shall be set in each case according to the amount and importance of the investment, taking into account the municipal interest and that of the users and tenants.

The Municipal Council shall also set the municipal contributions and fees derived from the contract that it shall receive from the concessionaire.

In addition to what is established in the State Contracting Law, the contract in which a concession for the provision of a municipal service is formalized shall establish:

a)Acceptance, by the concessionaire, of the municipal ordinances and regulations governing the operation of the service.

b)The obligation of the concessionaire to keep accounting records in accordance with the law, for its verification at all times by the Comptroller General of Accounts, when the financial statement of the enterprise is requested from the municipality.

c)The obligation of the concessionaire to place at the disposal of the municipality the accounting books and documents and to provide it, at any time, with the information requested from it.

d)The right of the municipality to acquire the service free of charge or upon prior compensation, according to the nature and conditions under which it was granted, upon expiration of the time limit of the concession. In the case of compensation, an appraisal of the property shall be made, taking into consideration all elements and factors determining its real price, without relying exclusively on cadastral or tax declarations, reports or data from State entities or agencies, the file and the corresponding draft contract having to be submitted for review by the Comptroller General of Accounts before its approval, and no payment chargeable to the transfer contract for the property shall be made until it has been approved by the Municipal Council and the decision is final. In any event, the municipality must assume responsibility for the service, free of liabilities of any kind.

Without prejudice to the provisions of the Political Constitution of the Republic and to the civil and criminal liabilities incurred by the concessionaire, the municipality has the power to temporarily intervene in the municipal public service that is administered and provided deficiently, or that ceases to be provided without any authorization, or in which municipal ordinances and regulations or the obligations assumed by the concessionaire in the corresponding contract are breached.

In any case, the intervention of the service in question shall be carried out at the expense of the concessionaire and shall be conducted in accordance with the provisions of the Civil and Commercial Procedural Code and other laws governing the matter, regardless of the business character that the affected natural person or legal person may have, and, consequently, the functions to be performed by the intervention may be determined in the respective agreement. The service or business may be attached by way of intervention.

The mayor shall appoint the person who is to take charge of the intervention, immediately after the agreement has been issued by the Municipal Council and, immediately thereafter, shall grant possession to such person.

In the intervention of colonias, lot developments and parcel developments, the procedure provided for in the two (2) preceding paragraphs shall be observed, without prejudice to compliance with the laws, regulations and ordinances governing urban and rural development.

If during the intervention the legitimate buyer or acquirer of a lot or parcel pays the balance owed by him, the administrator-in-charge shall inform the lot developer or parcel developer thereof, so that he complies with executing the corresponding deed of transfer of ownership or, as applicable, the release of payment in favor of the buyer or acquirer, and if, within fifteen (15) days, compliance has not occurred, the administrator-in-charge may execute it in default, recording such circumstance.

The municipal public-service concession may be revoked for any of the following causes:

a)When the Municipal Council declares that it is harmful to the interests of the municipality.

b)For violation of provisions relating to public order and social interest.

c)For non-compliance with provisions of a general or local nature relating to public health and hygiene and environmental protection.

d)When the deficiencies of the service are not remediable through the procedure provided for in the preceding article.

In any of these cases the contentious-administrative avenue is excluded.

If the service is provided by the municipality, its administrative departments, service units and its enterprises, when the deficiencies or irregularities attributed to it are reported, the mayor or the Municipal Council, as the case may be, are obligated to verify and resolve them, adopting the measures that are necessary.

The municipality shall have, if it deems it advisable and has the necessary resources, a municipal police corps, under the orders of the mayor. It shall be integrated in accordance with its needs, the requirements of the service and the values, principles, norms and traditions of the communities.

In the exercise of its functions, the Municipal Police shall observe the laws of the Republic and shall ensure compliance with the agreements, regulations, ordinances and decisions issued by the Municipal Council and the mayor, respecting the basic criteria of the customs and traditions proper to the communities of the municipality. A regulation shall govern its functioning.

The labor relations between the municipality and its public officials and employees are governed by the Municipal Service Law, the regulations on the matter issued by the Municipal Council, and the collective pacts and agreements entered into in accordance with the law.

The Municipal Council shall make the appointment of the public officials within its competence, based on the three-candidate slates proposed by the mayor for each position. The Secretary, the Director of the Municipal Integrated Financial Administration -AFIM-, the auditor and other public officials required by the modernization of the municipal administration may only be appointed or removed by Agreement of the Municipal Council.

The following may not be appointed to nor hold a municipal office:

a)Relatives of the mayor, the trustees or the councilors, within the fourth degree of consanguinity or second of affinity.

b)Those covered in Article 45 of this Code.

c)Those who have handled, collected, held in custody or administered funds, property and securities of the State or of the municipality, if they have not rendered accounts and obtained a clearance.

If at the time of appointment or subsequently, the appointee should fall under any of the prohibitions contained in this article, the office shall be declared vacant and, where applicable, they shall be indemnified in accordance with the law.

The Municipal Council shall have a secretary, who at the same time shall be the secretary of the mayor. To be appointed secretary, a person must be Guatemalan by origin, a citizen in the exercise of his political rights, and have the aptitude to be eligible for the office, in accordance with the respective municipal regulation.

The following are attributions of the secretary:

a)Prepare, in the corresponding books, the records of the sessions of the Municipal Council and authorize them, with his or her signature, upon approval in accordance with the provisions of this Code.

b)Certify the records and decisions of the mayor or of the Municipal Council.

c)Direct and order the work of the Secretariat, under the immediate authority of the mayor, ensuring that employees fulfill their legal and regulatory obligations.

d)Draft the annual report of activities and submit it to the Municipal Council during the first fortnight of the month of January of each year, sending copies thereof to the Executive Branch, to the Congress of the Republic and to the Municipal Development Council and to the media outlets within its reach.

e)Attend all sessions of the Municipal Council, with informative voice but without vote, reporting to it on the files, proceedings and other matters, in the order and manner indicated by the mayor.

f)File the certifications of the records of each session of the Municipal Council.

g)Collect, file and preserve all issues of the official gazette.

h)Organize, order and maintain the archive of the municipality.

i)Perform any other function assigned to him or her by the Municipal Council or by the mayor.

In cases of temporary absence, leave or excuse of the secretary, he shall be replaced by the Secretariat officer who corresponds in numerical order. If there is none, the Municipal Council, upon proposal of the mayor, shall appoint the person who is to replace him on an interim basis.

The municipalities shall hire an internal auditor, who shall be Guatemalan by origin, a citizen in the exercise of his political rights, an active collegiate public accountant and auditor, who, in addition to ensuring correct budget execution, shall implement an efficient and agile system for budget monitoring and execution, being responsible for his actions before the Municipal Council. The internal auditor may be hired on a full-time or part-time basis. The municipalities may hire, in associative form, an internal auditor. His functions shall be regulated by the corresponding internal regulation.

When modernization needs and workloads so require, upon proposal of the Mayor, the Municipal Council may authorize the hiring of the Municipal Manager, Judge of Municipal Affairs and other public officials who contribute to the efficient performance of the technical and administrative functions of the municipalities, whose powers shall be regulated by the respective regulations.

Neither the relatives of the mayor and of the other members of his corporation, included within the degrees provided by law, nor those excluded by other laws, may hold the offices referred to in Articles 81, 83, 86, 88, 89 and 90 of this Code.

The rights, obligations, powers and responsibilities of municipal employees are determined in the Municipal Service Law, the regulations on the matter issued by the Municipal Council, and the collective pacts and agreements entered into in accordance with the law.

Every municipal employee or municipal public official shall be personally liable, in accordance with the laws, for the violations or omissions incurred in the performance of his or her position.

The municipalities shall establish a competitive examination procedure for the granting of positions and institute the administrative career, with adequate disciplinary rules to be guaranteed and fair economic and social benefits to be received, as well as protection against sanctions or dismissals that have no legal basis, in accordance with the Municipal Service Law.

The municipalities, in coordination with other municipalist and training entities, both public and private, shall promote the development of training efforts for their personnel at least once per semester, for the purpose of strengthening the administrative career of the municipal employee.

With regard to the competency training system for municipal public officials, established in this Code, it is the responsibility of the municipality to develop the programs that will guide the training.

It is the responsibility of the Municipality that the municipal public officials referred to in Articles 83, 88, 90, 95 and 97 of this Code, in addition to the requirements established for each of them in said Articles, in order to be appointed as such, shall be trained in accordance with the resources available to it.

Without prejudice to the provisions of Article 94 of this Code, the process for the training referred to in the preceding article, required of municipal public officials, shall be regulated by the Municipal Council, which shall observe the principles of equality of opportunities, objectivity and equanimity, as well as the provisions of the Municipal Service Law.

The municipality shall guarantee technical and updated training to municipal public male employees, female employees, female public officials and male public officials on the handling of the Budget Classifier with a Gender Focus, for its correct use and to apply it in the municipal budget projection.

The Municipal Council shall have a Municipal Planning Directorate that shall coordinate and consolidate the diagnostic assessments, plans, programs and development projects of the municipality. The Municipal Planning Directorate may have the sectoral support of the ministries and secretariats of State that comprise the Executive Branch.

The Municipal Planning Directorate is responsible for producing the accurate and quality information required for the formulation and management of municipal public policies.

The Director of the Municipal Planning Office shall be a Guatemalan by origin, a citizen in the exercise of his political rights and a professional, or have qualified experience in the matter.

The Municipal Planning Directorate shall have the following functions:

a)To comply with and execute the decisions of the Municipal Council insofar as corresponds to its responsibility and specific attributions;

b)To prepare the profiles, pre-investment and feasibility studies for projects for the development of the municipality, based on felt and prioritized needs;

c)To keep updated the socioeconomic statistics of the municipality, including geographic information on territorial ordering and natural resources;

d)To keep updated the register of identified and prioritized needs, and of plans, programs and projects in their profile, feasibility, negotiation and execution phases;

e)To maintain a permanent inventory of the social and productive infrastructure available to each populated center, as well as of the coverage of the public services enjoyed by such centers;

f)To advise the Municipal Council and the Mayor in their relations with public and private development entities;

g)To supply the information required of it by the municipal authorities or other interested parties, on the basis of the existing registers; and,

h)To keep updated the municipal cadastre.

The municipalities may contract on an associative basis the services of a coordinator for their municipal planning offices.

The Municipal Women's Office becomes a Directorate in the internal organization of the municipalities, and is responsible for developing and implementing proposals for municipal policies based on the National Policy for the Promotion and Development of Guatemalan Women for integration into policies, local agendas and municipal actions.

The Municipal Council has the responsibility to guarantee the allocation of the necessary human and financial resources in the municipal budget of each year, for its functioning and the fulfillment of its objectives. The Municipal Women's Office shall coordinate its functions with the other technical offices of the municipality.

The Director of the Municipal Women's Office is appointed by the Municipal Council and must meet the following requirements:

a)Be a Guatemalan woman;

b)Reside in the municipality that selects her;

c)Speak one of the principal languages spoken in the municipality;

d)Have experience in work with women; and,

e)Be in the exercise of her civil and political rights.

The attributions of the Municipal Women's Office are:

a)To plan and schedule the technical actions to be implemented by the Municipal Women's Office;

b)To execute the budget assigned by the Municipal Council for the operation of the Municipal Women's Office and the fulfillment of its attributions;

c)To coordinate with the municipal entity in charge, the preparation of the Manual of Functions of the Municipal Women's Office, specific to the municipality;

d)To inform the Municipal Council and its Commissions, the Mayor, the Municipal Development Council and its commissions, on the situation of women in the municipality;

e)To provide information, advice and guidance to the women of the municipality, especially on their rights;

f)To promote the community participation of women at the different levels of the System of Urban and Rural Development Councils;

g)To inform and disseminate the work of the Municipal Women's Office, through the media with the purpose of making visible the actions that the Office carries out in the municipality;

h)To coordinate with the responsible departments, the management of technical and financial cooperation with national and international entities, for the implementation of actions and projects in favor of the women of the municipality;

i)To inform and make proposals in the sessions of the Municipal Council, when addressing issues related to public policies, plans, programs, projects, budgets and actions related to women at the municipal level;

j)To inform and make proposals in the technical planning of the Municipal Annual Operating Plan, in coordination with the Municipal Planning Directorate, on issues related to women;

k)To inform and make proposals in the preparation of the municipal annual budget, in joint coordination with the Municipal Planning Directorate and the Integrated Municipal Financial Administrative Directorate, on issues related to women;

l)To articulate and coordinate actions at the municipal level with the Municipal Commissions on the Family, Women, Children, Youth and Senior Citizens, to establish a harmonious working relationship that fosters the integral development of women;

m)To participate in the networks and/or roundtables formed at the municipal level, whose purpose is the prevention and eradication of all forms of discrimination and violence against women, establishing strategic articulation alliances with institutional actors, civil society organizations and women's organizations; and,

n)To coordinate with central government institutions the actions and public policies related to women's rights.

For purposes of complying with and enforcing all matters relating to the financial legal regime of the municipality, the collection and administration of municipal revenues, financing management, budget execution and control of the communal and patrimonial property of the municipality, each municipality shall have an Integrated Municipal Financial Administration, which it shall organize in accordance with the complexity of its municipal organization. Said unit shall have at a minimum the treasury, accounting and budget areas. The functions of each of said areas shall be regulated in the corresponding internal regulation.

The Municipal Integrated Financial Administration Directorate shall have the following attributions:

a)To propose, in coordination with the municipal planning office, to the Municipal Mayor, the budget policy and the norms for its formulation, coordinating and consolidating the formulation of the draft budget of revenues and expenditures of the municipality, as regards the municipal dependencies;

b)To render account to the Municipal Council, at its immediate session, so that it may decide on the payments it makes by order of the Mayor which, in its judgment, are not based on the law, which shall exempt it from all liability with respect to such payments;

c)To program the flow of revenues and expenditures based on the priorities and availabilities of the municipality, in accordance with the requirements of its municipal dependencies, responsible for the execution of programs and projects; as well as to make the payments that are supported by the allocations of the municipal budget, previously verifying their legality;

d)To keep the register of budget execution and of the accounting of the municipality and to prepare the corresponding analytical reports;

e)To remit to the Comptroller General's Office, certification of the record documenting the cash cutoff and count of municipal securities, no later than five (5) working days after such operations have been carried out;

f)To evaluate every four months the execution of the budget of revenues and expenditures of the municipality and to propose such measures as may be necessary;

g)To carry out the accounting closing and annually settle the budget of revenues and expenditures of the municipality;

h)To collect, administer, control and audit the taxes and, in general, all other rents and revenues to be received by the municipality, in accordance with the law;

i)To advise the Mayor and the Municipal Council on financial administration matters;

j)To maintain adequate coordination with the governing bodies of the financial administration systems and to apply the norms and procedures emanating therefrom;

k)To prepare and keep updated the register of taxpayers, in coordination with the municipal cadastre;

l)To inform the Mayor and the Municipal Planning Office of changes in the objects and subjects of taxation;

m)To administer the municipal public debt;

n)To administer the single cash account, based on the management instruments of the Single Municipal Treasury Account;

o)To prepare and submit the financial information required of it by law; and,

p)To perform any other function or attribution assigned to it by law, by the Council or by the Municipal Mayor in financial matters.