Bukele’s party accused of lack of transparency in the use of state funds

Two Salvadoran organizations filed a complaint on Monday before the Government Ethics Tribunal (TEG) against the deputies of the ruling party Nuevas Ideas (NI), of President Nayib Bukeleand its allies for lack of transparency in the management of state resources and 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 way how they are using that money, those public funds and who they have hired”he noted.

He pointed out that documents from the Legislative Assembly, leaked by a group of digital activists, show that the legislators of the ruling party would have hired “content creators, YouTubers, ex-footballers” and “other questioned characters”.

He explained that this complaint, filed together with the non-governmental association Bloque de Resistencia Popular (BRP), seeks to have the TEG pay attention to this situation and to make the details of the contracts known.

Ivania Cruz, also a lawyer for Unidehc, indicated that the Legislative Assembly had a budget of 34 million dollars in 2023, which rose to 35 million despite the fact that the number of seats was reduced from 84 to 60.

He stated that the 90% of the decrees approved by this State body come from the Government and 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 reservation of financial information “it is to commit corruption”he stressed.

In early July, President Bukele said on national television that legislators would each have a budget of US$11,000 for expenses.