Legislative investigation of funds granted to NGOs at the hands of FGR

2023-09-28 05:23:04

The indications of possible crimes in the case began to be considered last March, when the lawyers assigned by the Special Commission they suggested that the case passed into the hands of the FGR.

File photo: Equilibrium newspaper.

San Salvador. The investigation into the allocation of public funds to non-governmental organizations belonging to FMLN and ARENA deputies will be handed over to the Attorney General’s Office to investigate possible crimes.

According to the piece read by the deputies of Nuevas Ideas, Caleb Navarro and Alexia Rivas, given that the destination of the $273 million that the NGOs distributed during the legislative administrations of Arena and Fmln is not known, the FGR must investigate possible criminal offenses .

The aforementioned administrations had deputies who were part of the Finance and Special Budget Commission, and it was these same deputies who distributed the funds to their NGOs, such as Procomes, Fundaspad, Las Mélidas and Fundar, among others.

The commission specifically mentions former deputies Jorge Schafick Handal, Lorena Pena, Milena Calderón de Escaló and Mariela Peña Pinto. These were in charge of founding the NGOs, hiring members of their parties and employees of their legislative fractions.

The deputy president of the Legislative Assembly, Ernesto Castro, said that this case has shown that the FMLN and ARENA could agree, but “only to steal.”

No opposition deputy, with the exception of Claudia Ortiz, from VAMOS, or the FMLN asked to speak to give their opinion on the report that involves former deputies from said parties. César Reyes de Arena spoke to refute the report because he considered that the delivery of public funds to existing NGOs, which he links to the Nuevas Ideas party, is not being controlled.

Ortiz attacked Congressman Reynaldo Carballo, whom he accused of being part of an NGO that also received public funds, he stated. Carballo is a member of the Board of Directors of the Legislative Assembly. In conclusion, he described the work of the Special Commission as “mediocre.”