César “Tigre” Ramírez, governor of Canindeyú, made headlines during the week. Journalistic publications revealed that the ex-footballer disbursed G. 5,100 million (of the G. 6,400 million he received as emergency resources), only to one NGO.
It is the Asociación Pro Desarrollo del Norte, an entity that is also practically new since it was founded in August 2020, but the resources were received, only six months later, in February 2021.
Something similar happened in the case of Hugo Javier González, governor of Central. On this occasion, the politician also gave G. 5.1 billion to the NGO Fundación Centro Integral de Apoyo Profesional (CIAP).
On November 1st. González was charged by the Public Ministry for the alleged misappropriation of those resources. For this reason, it is suspected that the Ramírez case would also follow the same path.
COMPTROLLER
Emilio Ferreira, Accountability Director of the Comptroller’s Office, affirmed that Central’s audit is complete. He reported that they also work on audits for the governments of Alto Paraguay, Boquerón and Guairá. However, they have not yet received a formal complaint about Canindeyú.
“It depends on the complaints that arise. The Central case began after complaints from councilors. It depends on them unless there is an excessively important irregularity, “he said.
He reported that the 17 departments have already presented their accountabilities in relation to the expenses of the 2020 pandemic. It was approximately in the month of April of this year.
“The Central audit is already closed. But we have a divergence in the interpretation of a legal article. We are asking for clarification on the situation. We only depend on that to deliver ”, he advanced.
Regarding the other departments, he affirmed that Boquerón has already completed the audit. While in Guairá the observations have already been communicated, awaiting the return of the responses. Alto Paraguay, for its part, is waiting for a legal clarification to be concluded, something similar to what happens in the Central case.
INFORMATIZATION
One of the novelties that the Comptroller’s Office will have for citizens will be the digitization and accessibility of the accountability of the 261 municipalities as well as the 17 governorates.
In this regard, Ferreira said that it is about the presentation of the rendering of accounts for the third quarter. Both of the governments and municipalities on royalty funds and fonacide. The deadline for submitting the documents will begin on January 3 and will end on the 15th of the same month.
“It is done 100% online for the first time. With this, it will no longer be necessary for mayors or accountants to bring documents to the comptroller’s office. They will be able to raise them directly on an electronic platform ”, he explained.
The Comptroller, in turn, will raise the reports on the open data platform on its website. So that any citizen with internet access can check what public money is being spent on.
“This will empower the citizen to do controls in their own districts. You will know where the money is being spent. This will force the mayor and governor who has these resources to attend to much more how and on what to spend public money, “he said.
POLITICS
When asked about the little political support received by the lapidary report delivered by the Comptroller’s Office on the Hugo Javier case, he pointed out that they prefer to stay away from that issue. And that he prefers not to express opinions.
“We only do the technical work,” he said.
