Funes Exposes ARENA Corruption in First Two Weeks in Office

In his first two weeks in office, Mauricio Funes and his government ministries have begun to expose the results of 20 years of ARENA governing and look for ways to respond to that corruption.

 

Phantom Salaries and Overspending Uncovered

The FMLN has found an alarming number of irregularities in the former ARENA government ministries. In the National Registry Center, the new director found 29 phantom salaries, some of which began in 2002, and all of which ended the day before Funes’s inauguration. These salaries paid family members and friends of politicians; people who were almost never seen at the Center’s office. It is estimated that the National Registry Center spent $700,000 per year on these false salaries.

Funes’s investigation also found a number of cases of excessive over spending, including that the ex-director and sub-director of Social Security each had four cars assigned to them, and that the Secretary of the Family held a Christmas party that cost $500,000.

Government Announces Austerity Measures to Decrease Operations SpendingTo decrease government spending, Funes announced a plan that would restrict the use of government vehicles and excessive use of telephones and gasoline, and create a system for all government ministries to buy products together and share furniture, cars and computers. Also there will be regulations to avoid hiring more staff then necessary in government jobs. The goal of the government is to save a total of 75 million dollars in these austerity plans.

 

New Social Security Director Finds 145 Tons of Expired Medicine

On June 12th, the new director of the Salvadoran Institute for Social Security (ISSS) found 145 tons of expired medicine that had been in the ISSS storehouses. The expired medicine has an approximate value of roughly 17 million dollars and much of the it dates back to 1991.

The director of ISSS expressed sorrow that during the past administrations, hospitals and health clinics made medicines more and more expensive and left products in the storehouses to expire when they could have been given to the people. The ISSS will have to pay roughly 100 thousand dollars to destroy the expired medicine.

 

Judicial Process Against Jose Orellana for Money Laundering Begins

José Mario Orellana, an ex-director of the National Administration of Aqueducts and Sewage Treatment (ANDA), was detained last week for money laundering, cited for laundering 800,000 dollars from the state. It is believed that he transferred money from ANDA accounts into the accounts of family members.

 

Payment of Transportation Subsidies and Elimination of Payments in Hospitals

The Ministry of Public Works under Funes has paid the transportation subsidies to bus drivers, which Tony Saca’s government had left unpaid since February.

The Ministry of Health also gave their first payment of 10 million dollars to hospitals to pay for medicines and other needs, and officially eliminated the policy of asking all people for a “voluntary contribution” when they visit the hospital.

 

FMLN Denounces Spying in Ministries

On June 15th, FMLN press secretary Sigfrido Reyes denounced microphones and cameras that were found in a number of government ministries. Reyes believes that this is a scandal that could have been part of a plan to destabilize the new administration. He said “Evidently this is a large scale operation of political espionage that hopes to keep the new ministries under watch. We believe that this is a despicable act and hope that ARENA will make a statement about the situation.”

And while the FMLN uncovers the secrets that ARENA had hidden,
ARENA bickers with inter-party divisions

 

ARENA Supporters want Ex-President Saca to Apologize for FMLN Victory

Founders and leaders of the ARENA party publicly stated that they hoped that ex-president Tony Saca would apologize at the National Assembly of the ARENA party, which took place on June 14th.

Mario Acosta Oertel, founder of the ARENA party said “Ex-president Saca should know that we are thousands of ARENA supporters that are not happy that he continues to be the honorary president, he gave the power over to Funes.”