Wednesday, 18 August 2021 16:17

Finance minister presents bill to audit US$280 million from the pandemic

Written by Evelyn Alas

The minister of Finance, Alejandro Zelaya and Vice Minister Jerson Posada, presented a bill to audit the US$280 million that was given to the municipalities for the Covid-19 pandemic.

This initiative was requested through a transitory decree based on the powers of the Ministerio de Hacienda (MH), to carry out an accounting follow-up of the state assets, given the shortcomings in the auditing of these funds by the entity in charge, in the execution of US$191.7 million delivered to the 262 municipalities of the Emergency Fund.

The minister of Finance, Zelaya, assured that the Ministry of Finance was in charge of making the payments to the multilateral organizations and of delivering the funds for the management of the pandemic, but the State is not going to pay for houses and vehicles of corrupt officials.

Likewise, the minister indicated that, ''the Court of Accounts made the publication after I gave statements in the Treasury Commission. They pronounce themselves according to the agenda that comes out, but their function must always be to audit''.

"We will verify the totality of the municipalities, not even one will be left without being audited. We are going to launch a call to the human capital program to carry out the reports and investigation that will be sent to the Fiscalía General de la República (FGR) and Corte de Cuentas (CC)", minister Zelaya assured.