“Director of Political Financing Calls for Adjustments to Strengthen Control of Political Financing Law”

The Political Financing Law needs several adjustments to establish better control, is what the director of Political Financing of the Superior Court of Electoral Justice (TSJE), Christian Ruiz Díaz, maintains.

Among the changes that he announced are being worked on, there is mainly that referring to the regulation of party inmates, in which if there is a breach of the Electoral Law, it is the internal electoral body of the political organization that must sanction, and the fine it is “ridiculous”, of up to G. 25 million for the political organization, indicated Ruiz Díaz in contact with Monumental 1080 AM.

“For example, a political organization that has 3,000 candidates, and decides not to comply with the law, pays only G. 25 million and with that it is released,” he questioned.

The second change that the senior official cited is the time in which the control is carried out. The objective is for this to be done in real time and not after the elections, that is, 60 days later, when the act has already been completed.

And the third change is to have a list of contributors. The person who wants to contribute to a campaign must first register on a payroll so that it can be analyzed and then enabled to donate, if they meet the requirements.

In the National Observatory of Political Financing (Onafip) of the TSJE you can verify all the invoices, declarations and donors of the campaigns.

Subsidy. Ruiz Díaz announced that next week the consolidation of how much the political organizations received as contributions for fiscal year 2022 will be published, and how much the 61 political organizations that participated in the 2021 municipal elections received in the category of electoral subsidy.

He also explained that some candidates declare zero electoral spending and that the law does not prohibit it, but it can be a problem, because the system blocks the actor from not declaring any income or expense. In these cases, what enters for the campaign must be through the political organization, but specifying to which candidate the resource or donation will be destined.

“We also have political organizations that declare zero and then complain because when it comes to collecting the subsidy they tell us that the law talks about payment for votes, however, the subsidy is like compensation for the expenses incurred, if it declares zero, and they do not declare income or expenses and later deliver the invoices, 40% of what corresponds to the subsidy is discounted. You pay for votes but subject to accountability, ”he clarified.

Ruiz Díaz explained that they discounted a total of more than USD 500,000 from what corresponds to the electoral subsidy for the 2021 municipal elections, due to these inconsistencies in the statements among the 61 political organizations.

Extensive evaluation. The Electoral Law establishes that the renditions be presented within 60 days after the elections. Once the documentation is received, the Inspection Department works on traceability, if something unusual is found, a further investigation is applied, and if there are indications of a punishable act, it is reported to Seprelad after having communicated to the political organization, that for the law is the obligated subject, whose compliance officer must implement the mechanisms for the prevention of money laundering. The TSJE is just a natural supervisor.

These evaluations of the internal ones from last December have not yet concluded until now, because there were 88,000 candidates, and all their contributors are added to these.

“That is why we work with a tool called the risk matrix, which indicates the risk levels of candidates and donors, taking into account the flow of money, if it is effective, considering the geographical area, political organization and their position, then qualifies and reports the level of risk. In the event that unusual operations are generated, the documents are requested and, if it is not convincing, it is communicated to the institution in charge. And now we are working with the new declarations and then the rendering of accounts is added, ”he pointed out.

500,000 dollars discounted the TSJE to the 61 groups in the municipal elections of 2021 for errors in the surrenders.

25 million guaraníes is the maximum fine for organizations for not complying with the Financing Law.