By Deutsche Welle
Two organizations in El Salvador filed a complaint with the Government Ethics Tribunal (TEG) against the deputies of the ruling Nuevas Ideas (NI) party of President Nayib Bukele and their allies for “lack of transparency” in the management of state resources and the hiring of advisors.
Lawyer Rudy Joya, from the Human and Community Rights Defense Unit (UNIDEHC), explained to journalists that the complaint includes the legislative blocs of the National Concertation Party (PCN) and the Christian Democratic Party (PDC), allies of NI in Congress.
“To date, we have not seen in a transparent manner how they are using that money, those public funds and who they have hired,” he said.
Former footballers, YouTubers and socialites hired
Joya pointed out that Parliament documents – leaked by a group of digital activists – show that congressmen from the ruling party would have employed people with profiles “such as content creators, YouTubers, former football players, and other characters that make society wonder: what are they doing hired within the Legislative Assembly?”
The lawyer said that, in light of this, they decided to “formalize the first public complaint, doing so through the channels that the law already indicates, in this case, regarding legislative corruption.” He added that this complaint, presented together with the non-governmental association Bloque de Resistencia Popular (BRP), seeks for the TEG to “pay attention” to this situation and for the details of the contracts to be known.
Ivania Cruz, also a lawyer for UNIDEHC, indicated that the Legislative Assembly had a budget of $34 million in 2023, which increased to $35 million, despite the fact that the number of seats was reduced from 84 to 60.
“It is to cause corruption”
He said that 90% of the decrees approved by this State body come from the Government and that no study is carried out on them before their approval. “It is a waste and squandering of public funds that the deputies are doing” and the confidentiality of financial information “is to cause corruption,” said Cruz.
In early July 2024, Bukele said in a national broadcast that legislators would each have a budget of $11,000 dollars for expenses.
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