Five months before the Supreme Electoral Council (CSE) call for voting November municipal funds had already been spent andl 49.4% of resources that were assigned in the General Budget of the Republic 2022.
This percentage is equal to 899.9 million cordobas out of a total of 1823.1 million from Treasury Income, indicates the January-March 2022 budget execution report.
The report also states in a general way that of the 899.9 million córdobas accrued by the CSE, 803.8 millions were used in current transfers and donations, 88.7 millions were for salaries and 7.2 millions in goods and services, which is not a detailed rendering of accounts on the use of public treasury resources in this power of the State.
Executed amount corresponds to reimbursement for collaborators
However, the 803.8 million cordobas classified as “current transfers and donations” coincide with the reimbursement to collaborationist political parties that participated in the “2021 electoral farce,” which took place earlier this year and appears in the 2022 budget as “current transfers to other private sector institutions.” The other expenses recorded correspond to the payment of salaries and purchases made in “total opacity”.
The gloom in the administration of the CSE is perceived from the fact that the institution has not published any of its procurement processes on the State contracting portal, as well as its Annual Contracting Program (PAC), which it should have published since last January in accordance with article 20 of Law 737, State Procurement Law.
“Mountain-Sized Irregularities”
A public procurement specialist, consulted by CONFIDENTIALwarned that the CSE has “a substantial setback in terms of transparency” in terms of its acquisitions, since in previous years “although it had a deficit” it published its contracting processes, but now the administration of the electoral process remains in total “opacity” .
For the specialist, the lack of publication of the PAC and the acquisition processes of the CSE constitute a series of irregularities “the size of a mountain”, since that power of the State is violating the principles of publicity, transparency and due process in the Public contracts.
Advertising is “essential for carrying out any purchasing procedure in public institutions,” said the specialist.
In this case, the CSE “is violating these principles and therefore the acquisitions made lack legality, because it did not publish. It’s not that they didn’t make them, they should have made them, but they aren’t publishing them,” he commented.
The specialist also emphasized that the publication of public procurement is mandatory “because the citizenry must know what this institution planned or intends to contract, but also because of the effects of the potential suppliers that are going to contract in one or another procedure to be carried out” .
The cost of “silent” voting
Although the CSE has not published information on the way in which it is managing the resources of the public treasury, in the 2022 Republic budget an item of 1465.7 million cordobas for the electoral process, of which 1431.5 million are for administrative expenses Y 34.1 million for the acquisition of software programs.
The amount allocated this year to the CSE for municipal voting is twice the amount 773.4 million cordobas he received for “the electoral farce” last year.
This is explained because in the 2022 budget the amount earmarked for reimbursement to the political parties that participated in the 2021 voting appears. The reimbursement for this year’s voting will be allocated in the 2023 budget.
weeks ago, the citizen observatory Open Ballot Boxes He warned, without giving details, that the CSE ordered the production of electoral material to the company Inversiones Papeleras SA (Inpasa), in a process that —like the voting— is carried out in total opacity.
“The administrative process for the production of electoral material was also launched in a complete lack of transparency. The CSE does not call for elections and neither does it ensure or demand that the conditions that guarantee the legitimacy and integrity of the electoral process be met, since the de facto police state is maintained, the absolute suppression of fundamental freedoms and generalized political violence” warned the agency.
