The Public Ministry announced it will be checking the veracity of worth statements submitted by the new and outgoing government officers. By law, high-ranking government officers are required to present their worth statements at the start and end of each term
As the government officers comply with the requirement, the media wonders if the time has come for the document to be more than just a formality, just a piece of paper. To date, the Chamber of Accounts, has not applied controls to the documents. Looking into the worth statements’ veracity and acting upon irregularities has not been an issue either for the Attorney General’s Office, or the Ethics Agency of the Presidency, nor the Anti-Corruption Agency.
Now, the heads of the Chamber of Accounts (the same as under the Medina administration) say the declarations will be verified and the law will be enforced. Yet, the reality is that the Chamber of Accounts would have to verify the reports of around 6,000 government officers that are required to file the asset declarations.
Meanwhile, the Attorney General Miriam German says she is preparing her troops to act.
Will the authorities act this time? It would be a first. There is no record of the authorities acting against irregularities in the presenting of fake information in the country.
Law 311-14 establishes that those who present fake data can be published with jail sentences of one to two years and fines of 20 to 40 times the minimum wage in government (up to about RD$400,000).
Former Vice President Milagros Bosch, now director of the Ethics and Government Integrity Department, said last week that the sworn statements were “not papers to file away, but documents that should be checked.
And Attorney General Miriam Germán, a former president of the Criminal Court of the Supreme Court of Justice, said: “The investigative bodies of the Public Ministry will proceed to investigate the cases reported by the Chamber of Accounts.
Hugo Alvarez, president of the Chamber of Accounts, has reported to the Attorney General Office (PGR) the names of 392 officials who until 17 June of this year, had not presented their statements for the Medina administration. The Chamber of Accounts also sent to the PGR the names of 3,000 outgoing officials who had not yet deposited their worth statements.
Meanwhile, the press continues to present the worth statements.
The Institutionalism and Justice Foundation (Finjus) has called for the Chamber of Accounts to investigate the origin and truthfulness of the new and outgoing government officials’ sworn statements of assets. Servio Tulio Castaños Guzman, the executive vice-president of Finjus, said that the information can be crosschecked with data from the Registry of Deeds, the Superintendency of Banks and the Tax Agency (DGII) to see if it matches with the individual’s income.
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El Nacional
21 September 2020