Activist and Asunción city council candidate for the Unidos por Asunción Alliance, Mauricio Maluff, has denounced the alleged existence of an "international events mafia" within the city's Municipal Government. According to him, taxes on tickets for major concerts held in the capital are not being fully transferred to the public coffers.
The accusation was made after Maluff received a response from the municipality to a freedom of information request regarding revenue collection in recent years. He stated that the official data reveals significant discrepancies. "In every office of the Asunción Municipal Government there seems to be an events mafia. We managed to get the Municipality to respond to my request, but with their answer it seems even more money is missing than I thought," Maluff declared in a video published on his social media.
The activist presented calculations comparing the revenue reported by the municipality with his own estimates. He mentioned that, even considering lower ticket prices and the reduced 7.5% rate for events with national artists, the revenue collected in 2023 should have been approximately G. 7.5 billion. However, the Municipality reported collecting only G. 2.5 billion, indicating a difference of about G. 5 billion that was not accounted for.
Maluff stressed that this amount, although smaller than the G. 500 billion associated with misappropriations during the administration of former mayor Óscar "Nenecho" Rodríguez, has a real impact on the city. "It's enough to pay the salaries of 1,600 people or to pave a street in the Sajonia neighborhood, which the Municipality says it has no budget for," he questioned. He concluded by asking the public what they would do for their city with that sum.
According to the candidate, the absence of transparent public data fuels suspicions about the possible existence of parallel revenue collection schemes within the municipal administration.