Transparencia Venezuela (Transparency Venezuela) welcomes the decision of the National Assembly to create and appoint the highest authority of the Comptroller Council of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. As agreed by the Chamber, the organ that “will exercise autonomous functions of special comptroller over the Presidency-in-charge of the Republic and the National Assembly ”.
According to the approved agreement, this body will also act “on the ad hoc Administrative Boards and the Office of the Special Prosecutor”. It will guarantee “the proper use of resources from international cooperation and the proper administration of the assets of the Republic rescued through the mechanisms provided for in the Statute governing the transition to democracy ”.
We consider it a positive fact for all Venezuelans that the National Assembly has taken this decision unanimously and within the framework of public debate. At the same time, we welcome that Parliament seeks to establish controls to verify the legality, accuracy, efficiency, economy, quality, and impact of the operations and the results of the management of public resources by entities and officials under the control of the president of the National Assembly, Juan Guaidó.
We support the initiative of the Legislative Power to pass a law that delimits the powers and operation of the Comptroller Council of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, in contrast to the opacity, arbitrariness, and impunity imposed by the Executive, the Comptroller General of the Republic, the Public Ministry, and the Judiciary.
In that sense, we call for the Parliament to approve the “Law for the organization and operation of the Comptroller Council of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela” in the shortest possible time so that all Venezuelans be able to exactly know the powers of this body and the areas of greater impact under its competence.
We call for a transparent and competitive selection of the members of the Comptroller Council of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. We also remind that this body must have a budget that indicates the origin and distribution of the funds by projects, with objectives and goals that allow evaluating its performance.
Transparencia Venezuela reiterates that this first step to protecting public goods and resources is good news, and urges the National Assembly to continue deepening the actions to combat the opacity and arbitrariness that have unfortunately become the norm during the last 21 years in the country.
