Government and municipal entities can leverage location intelligence to optimize strategic planning, improve the quality of public services and optimize their budgets.
What type of solutions does location intelligence provide to governments
Analytics through big data management techniques allows governments to understand the needs of their citizens, combat fraud, minimize system errors and improve operations, reducing costs and improving the services of any government entity.
Foot traffic analytics through geospatial data and Big Data enables governments and public sector organizations to deliver more efficient and secure services, as well as respond more quickly and accurately to the needs of customers and citizens.
More and more companies are turning to predictive analytics to optimize their processes, achieve better business results and increase their market share.
Organizations use internal predictive analytics to forecast trends, understand and predict customer behavior, improve performance and drive strategic decision making.
In 2019, the perception of corruption in public institutions increased in all countries of the region except Costa Rica, where it remained the same as in 2018.
As has been the case in recent years, Nicaragua's public sector continues to be perceived as the most corrupt in the region (transparency level 22 on a scale of 0 to 100), followed by Guatemala (26), Honduras (26), Dominican Republic (28), El Salvador (34), Panama (36), and Costa Rica (56).
Until December 16, 2022, businesses in Guatemala will have to comply with the rules contained in the Regulations for Environmental Evaluation, Control and Monitoring.
The Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (MARN) reported that after the publication of Government Agreement 317-2019 on December 24, 2019 in the Central American Journal, which reforms Government Agreement 137-2016, the period was extended by three years so that all projects, works, industries or productive activities present their respective environmental instruments in order to function.
The French government reported that it removed Guatemala from the list of countries that do not cooperate with the exchange of fiscal information, but kept Panama.
The European country's authorities reported that Guatemala was removed from the list because it ratified the convention on mutual administrative assistance in tax matters of the Council of Europe and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
The Dominican Republic, Panama and Honduras are the nations in the region where the majority of the population believes that corruption in government institutions has increased in the last twelve months.
The report "Barómetro Global de la Corrupción: América Latina y El Caribe 2019 - Opiniones y Experiencias de los ciudadanos en materia de corrupción" (Global Corruption Barometer: Latin America and the Caribbean 2019 - Opinions and Experiences of Citizens on Corruption), compiled by Transparency International and published on September 23, 2019, evaluated the perception of corruption in the countries of the region and some aspects of insecurity.
A bill will be presented to the Congress of the Republic of Guatemala to require public accountants, auditors, lawyers and notaries to report their transactions.
The bill seeking to broaden the scope of regulated persons’ subject to money laundering control, which will be presented by the Superintendence of Banks (SIB), is aimed primarily at professionals as individuals, but will also include real estate companies, vehicle agencies and casinos.
Since June 3, in Guatemala, the purchase and sale of properties will require a single process to obtain certification of property and cadastral appraisals.
Before this change was implemented, it was necessary to compile separately the certifications of the value at which the real estate was registered in the Municipality, the fiscal value of Dirección de Catastro y Avalúo de Bienes Inmuebles (DICABI) or the value declared in the deed of Purchase-Sale or what was agreed upon by buyer and seller.
During its last visit to Guatemala, the IMF warned that if banking secrecy is not lifted in the country, compliance with "international transparency treaties" could be undermined.
After the last visit of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to Guatemala, the international organization warned that reversing the decrease in tax collection involves strengthening the control of large taxpayers, improving the use of tax information to reduce non-compliance, reallocating resources to risk-based audits, and reconsidering the lifting of bank secrecy for tax auditing purposes.
From May 2019, foreign customers will have to declare to local system banks that their funds meet their country's tax requirements.
The Superintendence of Banks of Panama (SBP) approved Agreement 02-2019, which implements the recommendations of the Financial Action Task Force, which consists of expanding the required due diligence measures of banks with their customers.
January 3, 2020 is the deadline for companies and businesses that already operate in Guatemala and do not have the study, submit their Environmental Diagnosis to receive a reduction in the fine.
Fines for companies that do not yet have an Environmental Diagnosis could be as high as $13,000; however, if they present their documentation before the deadline, the penalty could be set at $650.
In 2018, the perception of corruption in public institutions increased in all countries in the region, except Panama, where it remained the same as in 2017, and El Salvador, where it slightly decreased.
As in previous years, Nicaragua's public sector continues to be considered the most corrupt in the region (level of transparency 25 on a scale of 0 to 100), followed by Guatemala (27), Honduras (29), El Salvador (35), Panama (37), and Costa Rica (56).
The article of the law in Guatemala, which facilitated access to companies bank information via a court order requested by the tax authorities, has been temporarily suspended.
The decision was taken by the Constitutional Court after a company filed an appeal of unconstitutionality.Based on the arguments put forward, the CC decided to order the provisional suspension of Article 52, which empowered the Superintendency of Tax Administration (SAT) to request that a judge order the lifting of banking secrecy of individuals or companies when there was "...reasonable doubt about the results of the processes or execution of the selective and mass inspection plans'." See "Guatemala: Bank Secrecy Now Lifted"
In 2017, the perception of corruption in public institutions increased in all of the countries in the region, with the exception of Guatemala and Nicaragua, where it remained the same as in 2016, and in Costa Rica, where it decreased slightly.
The public sector still perceives Nicaragua to be the most corrupt country (transparency level 26 on a scale from 0 to 100), followed by Guatemala (28), Honduras (29), El Salvador (33), Panama (37) and Costa Rica (59).