Political Constitution of Colombia (1991)

The House of Representatives shall have the following special powers:

To elect the Ombudsman.

To examine and finalize the general budgetary and treasury account presented to it by the Controller General of the Republic.

Accuse the President of the Republic or whoever is occupying that office before the Senate, with a prior request in the Commission for the Investigation and Prosecution of the House of Representatives, when there are constitutional causes, as well as the members of the Commission of Immunity.

To take cognizance of denunciations and complaints presented before it by the Attorney General of the Nation or by individuals against specific officials and, if valid, to bring charges on that basis before the Senate.

To request the assistance of other authorities for the conduct of investigations for which the House is competent, and to commission the collection of evidence when the House considers it appropriate.

The Magistrates of the Constitutional Court, and the Supreme Court of Justice, the Council of State, the National Commission of Judicial Discipline, and the Attorney General of the Nation will be responsible for whatever infraction of the disciplinary or penal law committed during the exercise of their functions or related with them. In any case, it will not be required, at any moment, responsibility for the votes and opinions issued in their judicial or consultative providences, issued according to their functional independence, without prejudice to the responsibility that applies from wrongfully favoring their own or other’s interests.

A Commission of Immunity will be competent to investigate and accuse, according to the law and the principles of due process, the office holders mentioned in the previous paragraph, even after the end of their official functions. In this case, it will be competent to hear the facts and omissions that occurred while in the exercise of official functions.

If the investigation is about disciplinary offence of indignity for bad conduct, the Commission of Immunity will proceed with the investigation and when pertinent will present charges to the House of Representatives. In no case can they be able to impose other sentence than the suspension and destitution from office. The decision of the House of Representatives can be appealed before the Senate of the Republic. Congress can in no case engage in investigations to furnish evidence. Against the decision of the Senate, there can be no recourse or action.

If the investigation is about crimes, the Commission of Immunity will also present charges to the Supreme Court of Justice for the proceedings to continue in that institution. In case of judicial proceedings against magistrates of the Supreme Court of Justice, the other judges will be designated by the Council of State.

The Commission will have sixty days to present the charge when the case refers to disciplinary offence of indignity for bad conduct, and the House of Representatives will have thirty days to decide. In any case, the Commission will be able to act with the investigation of a criminal cause if pertinent and, if they find merit in the accusation, can advance with the established proceeding in the past paragraph, in the term that the law establishes.

The Commission shall consist of five members, elected by the Congress in Plenum for the individual periods of eight years, of lists sent by the Government Judicial Council and constructed with public calls made by the Administration of the Judicial Branch within the terms established by the law.

The members of the Commission of Immunity should hold the qualities required for the Magistrates of the Supreme Court of Justice and will be subject to the same requirements of unfitness and incompatibilities.

The Chambers of the Constitutional Court, of the Supreme Court of Justice, of the Council of State, and the National Commission of Disciplinary Justice, can request the Commission of Immunity the suspension of one of its members while the accusation of disciplinary offences for indignity for bad conduct is decided.

The law will establish the procedures to determine the fiscal responsibility when the officeholders with immunity referred to in this Article exercise administrative functions.

Without prejudice to the established in the third section of Article 178, the Commission for Investigation and Prosecution of the House of Representatives will maintain, during a year to be counted from the entry into force of this Legislative Act, the power to investigate the facts that occur before the magistrates of the Commission of Immunity take office, those that are imputed to the officeholders with immunity referred to in this Article and the magistrate of the Supreme Council of the Judicature. The House of Representatives will adopt the necessary administrative decisions so that the investigative representatives can, in that period of time:

Dictate inhibiting resolutions in the cases that do no merit the formal initiation of an investigation when it appears that the conduct has not existed, that is objectively atypical, that the penal action cannot begin, or that a cause of no liability is demonstrated.

Submit the investigation to the competent authorities if it is about actions committed outside of public office and the person investigated had ceased the practice of public office.

Order the beginning of the investigation when the facts of the case merits and submit it to the Commission of Immunity for the initiation of the process.

Present the charge before the Plenary Session of the House of Representatives with respect to open investigations, when the facts of the case merit it.

Submit to the Commission of Immunity all other investigations, in the phase that they are found, including those that have progressed against the magistrates of the Supreme Council of the Judicature.

While the law does not adopt the applicable procedure, the Commission of Immunity will be ruled by the procedural regime used in the investigation undertaken by the Commission of Investigation and Prosecution and the norms that substitute and modify it.