Mauricio Gándara Gallegos: Ad honorem is illegal | Columnists | Opinion

It is unconstitutional. More than a year ago, when the Government announced that it would create Ad Honorem Ministries with people who would collaborate with the President of the Republic without receiving a salary; therefore, without registering appointments and without submitting a sworn statement of assets to the Comptroller General’s Office, I warned, in this same column, on June 2, 2021, how illegal it was that there were officials exempt from the obligations required by the Constitution and the laws for all public administration officials. Article 231 of the Constitution establishes that all public officials, without exception, will submit a sworn statement of assets; then it says that the non-presentation of another sworn statement at the end of their functions, will presume illicit enrichment. Previously, in article 229, it says that public servants are all people who in any capacity provide services or hold a position, a function, within the public sector. It adds that the law will establish their remuneration. Therefore, the ad honorem nature of these functions should be abolished; those who perform them can donate their salaries to charity, if they wish. The Comptroller’s Office has committed a serious fault if it has not demanded, and does not demand, compliance with these legal mandates. Not to mention that these people can cause annulments by participating in acts of the administration. Not receiving a salary at the ministerial level, of about sixty thousand dollars a year, is secondary, compared to eventual benefits of millions with what is called “influence peddling.” Some of that is being investigated by the Prosecutor’s Office in the case that has just been uncovered, and, apparently, there will be others. It is, therefore, in the interest of such officials to comply with these constitutional requirements; unpleasant consequences will be avoided when they no longer have power, and they will have the future satisfaction, as I have now after having performed some public functions, that one can be searched every corner without finding anything improper.

The power of the new majority made itself felt a few days ago by modifying the draft Communications Law presented by the Government a year ago, and incorporating provisions with which Correismo previously suppressed, in practice, freedom of the press; “subsequent” responsibility has been reestablished, that is, a gag law, with which journalists and the media can be punished for questioning acts of public power; as they did in the past, sanctioning Diario EL UNIVERSO and opinion columnists; and several other independent newspapers and journalists, cartoonists. As I write these lines, it is not yet known whether the president has totally objected, as we free men hope, to the project approved by the new majority of the Assembly. Now that the institutions of the State are in question, freedom of the press is the greatest guarantee of the rights of citizens. True, the influence of digital media has grown, but there is no guarantee of its seriousness; of some it can be said that they have replaced the white walls of the houses, of which it was said that “they are the role of the scoundrel”. (O)

–