Law of the National Program for Intervention on Productive Roads
Congreso Nacional
- Decree: 129-2022
- Published: December 1, 2022
- Issuing body: Congreso Nacional
- Gazette: 36,091
- Category: Administrative
Summary
This law creates a national program that improves rural and secondary roads in Honduras to facilitate the distribution of agricultural and livestock products. It benefits municipalities and local producers by providing funds to mayors' offices to repair and build roads, while incorporating environmental protection measures and natural disaster risk management.
Considerations
Whereas the Constitution of the Republic establishes in its Article 59 that the human person is the supreme purpose of society and the State, and in Article 1 expressly declares the right of the population to enjoy adequate conditions of economic and social well-being, being the obligation of the State to ensure compliance with such conditions.
Whereas climate change is a reality that affects the entire world, but especially the countries of the Latin American region, intensifying natural phenomena and having direct repercussions on the lives of the peoples. The effects of climate change are catalyzed in societies by factors of social inequality, which are not unknown to the current Socialist and Democratic Government, and for which measures must be adopted to mitigate the effects of climate change in strategic areas that have a large number of beneficiaries both directly and indirectly.
Whereas it is a commitment of the present Government of the Republic to restore citizen participation by involving citizens in the formulation, execution, and evaluation of all State policies and actions, converting them into protagonists and managers of their own destiny.
Whereas in recent years, there is evident state abandonment and lack of investment in the tertiary and neighborhood road network throughout the country, which ensures the distribution of food and access of the population, which has been a limitation in inclusive and sustainable productive transformation for the development of municipalities; for which reason, the President of the Republic, Iris Xiomara Castro Sarmiento, in the Government Plan to Refound Honduras, proposes to improve the quality of national infrastructure and road network, implementing a National Plan of Highways and Roads that considers the country as a whole and respects protected areas, giving importance to secondary and tertiary roads to enhance agricultural and livestock production and promote projects for new construction, improvement of highway sections or paving of roads that allow safe and efficient mobility between settlements, productive centers and consumer markets with an integral vision, in such a way that their use supports the financing of projects to conserve and develop industries that add value.
Whereas the State Department in the Offices of Infrastructure and Transport (SIT) is the State entity responsible for matters concerning the formulation, coordination, execution, and evaluation of public policies related to public infrastructure works, the road, urban planning and transportation system, matters concerning public enterprises, as well as the concession regime of public works.
Whereas in response to the needs for attention and transformation of the tertiary and neighborhood road network at the national level and in accordance with the Government Plan, it is necessary to create the National Program for Intervention on Productive Roads, attached to the State Department in the Offices of Infrastructure and Transport (SIT), with the purpose of optimizing the distribution processes by the productive sectors of the country, improving the living conditions of the population.
Articles
The "National Program for Intervention in Productive Roads" or the Program is hereby created, attached to the Secretary of State in the Offices of Infrastructure and Transport (SIT), who shall coordinate the Program with the two hundred ninety-eight (298) municipal governments of the country.
The object of the Program is to develop joint and complementary actions, with the two hundred ninety-eight (298) municipal governments, aimed at addressing the needs of the municipalities of the country, improving the living conditions of the Honduran population, through the Program, which seeks the strengthening of the productive road network, incorporating mitigation and adaptation policies to climate change, as well as measures for natural disaster risk management in the development of the country's productive infrastructure, which allow productive sectors to continue with their production and distribution processes throughout the year, stimulating the local economy with the support of municipalities at the national level; addressing the formulation, construction and immediate attention of infrastructure in focused zones, promoting human strengthening, development of the local economy, job creation, continuity of services, among others.
For the purposes indicated in the preceding articles, the National Program for Intervention in Productive Roads shall have the following powers:
- 1)
Conduct decentralization processes of funds through municipalities and municipal associations;
- 2)
Promote citizen empowerment and participation in community management;
- 3)
Acquire machinery, vehicles and equipment necessary for the construction, rehabilitation, repair, maintenance, monitoring and supervision of the country's road network. Said machinery shall be acquired by the State and administered jointly with the two hundred ninety-eight (298) municipalities of the country; and,
- 4)
Create strategic alliances with Governmental Institutions, National Non-Governmental Organizations and International Organizations that it considers pertinent for the best development of the Program. Said transfers shall be made exclusively to municipalities and municipal associations.
The Program must create the administrative, operational and technical structure necessary for its proper operation, monitoring and follow-up, for which the necessary resources must be provided in accordance with the guidelines established by the Secretary of State in the Offices of Infrastructure and Transport (SIT).
The decentralization of resources to finance the works and attention to productive infrastructure of the country within the framework of the Program must be used exclusively for projects approved by the Secretary of State in the Offices of Infrastructure and Transport (SIT), the latter being the entity in charge of defining the focalization and prioritizing the various types of projects, with the support of the (298) municipal governments.
The Secretary of State in the Office of Finance (SEFIN) is ordered to conduct the necessary administrative procedures to authorize the Secretary of State in the Offices of Infrastructure and Transport (SIT) to effect transfers to municipalities, which shall be deposited in the single payment account of the municipalities or municipal associations, and must be used exclusively for the fulfillment of the objectives established in this Law, registering said transfers, given their nature, as part of the national public investment of the central government.
It is the responsibility of the municipalities to assume the administrative, technical and legal responsibility for the development of the phases of the projects, in accordance with the State Contracting Law and in adherence to the principles of non-duplication, transparency, good faith, efficiency, equality and free competition; maintain an updated accounting and financial system for the management of resources; register in the Integrated Municipal Administration System (SAMI) and in the transparency portal all movements and transactions carried out; render accounts to the Secretary of State in the Offices of Infrastructure and Transport (SIT) and to the Secretary of State in the Offices of Governance, Justice and Decentralization (SGJD) regarding the administration and execution of the projects; coordinate with municipal associations a cooperation system through which necessary technical support is provided to the Municipalities in the formulation, development and supervision of the projects; and, conduct the technical, administrative and financial closure of each project.
The Municipal Corporations shall implement social audit processes, social oversight processes and socialization processes, accrediting these matters in the corresponding minutes related to the oversight process.
It is the inescapable responsibility of the Municipal Corporations to submit in a timely manner the final report and financial settlement of the projects, in order to access subsequent allocations of Program funds; said final report must have the validation of the Citizen Commission for Transparency.
The National Program must issue the internal regulations that are necessary, which must contemplate among others the following aspects:
- 1)
The focalization criteria for selecting beneficiaries;
- 2)
The administration, execution, operation and scope of the Program; and,
- 3)
The powers and responsibilities of each one of the institutions or municipalities executing the project.
The Secretary of State in the Offices of Infrastructure and Transport (SIT) is hereby ordered to proceed to create its Regulations within ninety (90) days following the entry into force of this Law.
This Law shall enter into force as of the day of its publication in the Official Gazette "La Gaceta". Given in the city of Tegucigalpa, municipality of the Central District, in the Hall of Sessions of the National Congress, on the twenty-fourth day of the month of November of two thousand twenty-two. LUIS ROLANDO REDONDO GUIFARRO PRESIDENT CARLOS ARMANDO ZELAYA ROSALES SECRETARY LUZ ANGÉLICA SMITH MEJÍA SECRETARY To the Executive Power Therefore: Let it be executed. Tegucigalpa, M.D.C., December 1, 2022. IRIS XIOMARA CASTRO SARMIENTO PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC THE SECRETARY OF STATE IN THE OFFICES OF INFRASTRUCTURE AND TRANSPORT MAURICIO ANTONIO RAMOS CASTRO
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