Opposition deputies in Paraguay accuse the Comptroller General of the Republic, Camilo Benítez, of using the argument of a “legal vacuum” as a pretext not to sanction institutions that fail to comply with the Transparency Law (Law 5189/14). For Raúl Benítez (independent) and Adrián Darío “Billy” Vaesken (liberal), the proposal to amend the law to give the Comptroller’s Office express power to punish is a maneuver that “whitewashes” non-compliance.
“Camilo cannot become a whitening tool for institutions that do not respond or do not comply with the Law on Access to Public Information,” said Raúl Benítez. He recalled that when the Personal Data Bill, which affected transparency, was being processed, the comptroller maintained “complicit” silence. For the deputy, the Comptroller’s Office could regulate the matter if there were real will to enforce the law.
Billy Vaesken, in turn, cited his experience as a departmental councilor of Central, when requests for audits on the management of former governor Hugo Javier went unanswered until the Anti-Corruption Secretariat denounced fraud in covid-19 pandemic invoices. “He has always shown himself to be timid and slow, but in other cases he is quick and agile; he has different yardsticks to measure whom to audit,” he criticized.
Vaesken pointed out that the Comptroller’s Office ignored requests for intervention in the municipality of Tomás Romero Pereira, linked to the father of former senator Hernán Rivas, while it acted against the administration of Miguel Prieto in Ciudad del Este without initiative from the councilors. “It’s a simple excuse. He can carry out an immediate special inspection. Time is the worst enemy of corruption,” he said.
Liberal deputy Pedro Gómez argued that Congress should give the Comptroller’s Office the necessary tools, but pondered: “I am not aware that he has impediments.” Among the agencies that deny information are the binational entities, which question the application of the law based on international treaties, without a decision from the Supreme Court.
Recently, reports revealed high salary expenditures in the binational entities, with encrypted data that hinders analysis.