Édgar Acosta, liberal deputy, pointed out that the bill that establishes modifications to the Sworn Declarations Law will contribute to prevent impunity from protruding in cases of false declarations.
Édgar Acosta, a national deputy for the PLRA, one of the signatories of the bill drafted by the Comptroller General of the Republic (CGR), explains that Camilo Benítez himself, comptroller general, sent a note to the lower house. In it, he requests two modifications to the Sworn Declarations Law.
One of them is that a judicial sentence is no longer necessary for the publication of the DDJJ, but rather that it be automatic. Likewise in relation to the correspondence of goods.
“The project had to be taken up by some parliamentarians to be taken into account as a bill since the Comptroller’s Office does not have that power. I was one of the signatories. Unfortunately, some colleagues modified the document, incorporating the possibility that the DDJJ be modified more than once. And with that it is enabled that people can modify it every time, ”he commented.
In the voting, those in favor of leaving the project as delivered by the Comptroller lost. For what happened to the Senate with the new article that establishes the possibility of modifications.
At the end of last year, the Senate eliminated the modifications, sending the document in its original state.
“The spirit of the modifications was to provide more transparency to the process. So that the intervention of any journalist is not necessary for the publicity of the declarations. Thus, it is also sought that there be more information from public officials. They cannot get angry because they collect their salaries thanks to the contribution of citizens”, he commented.
In addition to Acosta (PLRA Central), the other signatories were; Tadeo Rojas (ANR Central); Justo Zacarías (ANR Alto Paraná); and Avelino Dávalos (ANR Caazapá).
TRANSPARENCY
In recent days, striking inconsistencies were revealed in the sworn statements of high-ranking government officials. One of the main ones was the case of the now former minister of the National Emergency Secretariat (SEN). He himself owned a luxurious yacht whose value was around US$500,000. However, he never made it appear in his DDJJ.
Acosta recalled another emblematic case that affected the former president of the Republic, Horacio Cartes. He himself was affected in October 2021 by an international journalistic investigation that revealed that he owned three “ghost” companies in Panama. However, Cartes only made them appear, days before the journalistic publication.
