The president of the Chamber of Accounts, Janel Ramírez, denied on 6 June 2023 that he had insulted the female members in the plenary of the entity, as Tomasina Tolentino, secretary of the auditing body claimed when sitting for questioning by the Chamber of Deputies. The Chamber of Deputies is reviewing the actions of the five members of the Chamber of Accounts to decide whether or not to remove these after Ramirez complained of an impasse at the entity and that he was impeded to carry out his role by three dissenting members.
Ramirez pointed out that this is one of the reasons why he demands the release of the minutes of the plenary sessions of the Chamber of Accounts, which were illegally sealed by the previous president and which the current one has not yet been declassified. Ramirez has advocated for complete transparency in the acting of the members.
He assured that with the minutes, the citizenry will be able to see the tone, the disrespect, the management and all the things that take place within this entity.
He indicated that although Tolentino is only one person, she speaks on behalf of the dissenting members. Nevertheless, Ramirez said he was told that one of the women disputed that she had been insulted. The Chamber of Deputies hearings are behind closed doors, at the request of the majority of the Chamber of Accounts members.
Ramirez continued to defend the transparency in the hiring of new auditors for the Chamber. He said the selection was a transparent competition, but met with the opposition of the three dissenting members.
“When the approval of the appointment of those 60 was submitted, curiously, that person and another one voted against a transparent and unprecedented process. Let them say the complete information, that although 72 auditors have been admitted, they voted against 60, the 60 that were not recommended by any member nor by any politician,” he pointed out.
When reviewing a document containing a list of the employees of the Audit Directorate of the Chamber of Accounts, it is observed that there are 247. In the admission of 60, the vice president and the secretary of the plenary voted dissenting; while in the admission of 12, in five of them the vice president had dissenting votes and in the remaining seven she voted in favor.
The president of the Chamber of Accounts told Hoy newspaper that there are many people in the institution who politicians have recommended for their jobs, but in his case, he only proposes to hire persons for their professional merits.
The Chamber of Deputies has, through 9 June 2023 to decide whether to recommend the Senate remove the five members of the Chamber of Accounts. Civic watchdog group Participacion Ciudadana says this decision would be a blow to the efforts of the public prosecution to combat corruption. The audits are the base for many corruption cases heard in the judiciary. If the Chamber of Accounts is removed a new board would have to be appointed and the procedure is difficult as the country is about to enter into the campaign period for the 2024 municipal, congressional and presidential elections in the first half of the year.
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DR1 News
7 June 2023