Live: The Special Assembly Commission turns off the microphone for Lorena Pena

Lorena Pena, a former deputy head of FMLN, was repeatedly interrupted while speaking at a special commission of the legislature investigating state funding provided to voluntary charities.

Alexia Rivas, head of the New Ideas Commission, turned it off when the pen mentioned the apparent endorsement of the Bitcoin Act made by representatives of new ideas and the public funds given to former Agriculture Minister Pablo Unliker during the epidemics. , In which the Accounting Court found discrepancies.

Rivas warned him that the microphone would be turned off as many times as he deemed necessary and that he would be informed with contempt if he continued to mention issues other than voluntary organizations, although the pen was on the Special Commission at 2pm, the time it was summoned, but it was not received until 7pm.

Caleb Navarro, a congressman from New Ideas, made a misrepresentation against former Congresswoman Lorena Pena. That was the moment when Navarro questioned him about a practice in which the pen argued about how funds were allocated to voluntary charities.

“Where did the process of making this law go?” Navarro asked, to which the pen replied: “He asked me where the matter had gone, well, I did not send it through the Arc de Triomphe …”, and the moment the commission’s chairman Alexia Rivas closed the microphone. “He should measure his words as well,” the pen justified, “since I’m a woman, do not make such bad metaphors.”

Caleb Navarro and Alexia Rivas insist on threatening me with insults and I do not like the answer when I try to answer their questions.

– Lorena pen (@lorenagpeam) July 17, 2021

Milena de Escalone, a former representative of the Arena, reiterated to the representatives of the Special Legislative Commission investigating the transfer of resources from the state to voluntary organizations that the provision of these funds is always approved by the Ministry of Finance in accordance with the available funds. Was.

“We consulted with the Ministry of Finance before allocating funds to voluntary charities,” de Escalone said.
The power of the legislature to allocate resources to these companies is enshrined in Nos. 131, Nos. 8 and 11 of the Constitution, which in a general way can determine the nature of benefits or tax concessions or any action to be taken. Social nature.

In addition, they confirmed that the petitioner was legally registered with the Ministry of the Interior, so they had to attach to their application a document accrediting them as a legal voluntary organization.

De Escalan clarified that resources are not appointed at the discretion of the delegates and that they should be audited not only by the Court of Accounts of the Republic but also by the Ministry to which they are assigned because some NGOs are directly involved. Those ministries are responsible for ensuring that money is better implemented, for example, with certain areas of health or education.

“The money given by the finance minister to the ministry concerned, if it is healthy for the health ministry, has an obligation to audit that ministry. Not only the Republican Accounts Court, but also the ministry that provided the money would have to audit the organization if these projects were done,” the former deputy said.

Read more: “He’s not a weapon or dumb, he can defend himself”, says Romeo Aurbach in the case of Caligos when the investigation into the voluntary charity

Representatives of the Special Legislative Commission investigating the handling of funds provided by the Legislature to various voluntary charities summoned four former congressional officials this Friday to explain the procedure to be followed for allocating state resources to NGOs.

In the afternoon it was the turn of Lorena Pena, the former vice-president of the FMLN and former speaker of the legislature; And former Arena deputy, Milena de Escalone. In the morning, legislators listened to the speeches of George Estrada, the former chairman of the Legislative Technical Adviser and Armando Pineda Navas, the former chairman of the Supreme Court and the former executive manager of the legislature.

Both former officials agreed that there was no regulation in the legislature to regulate the transfer of money to voluntary organizations, although this was a procedure that MPs always took when approving annual general state budgets.

The team of new ideas is trying to find more than 9 279 million seats allocated by the legislature to different voluntary charities in the last 11 years.

Earlier, the Special Commission also interviewed two former legislative technicians, Alejandro Solano and the current Magistrate of the Supreme Court (DSE), Noel Orellana.

Armando Pineta Navas, the legislature’s former operations manager, told delegates that there were no parameters for funding voluntary organizations.

According to representatives of the new ideas, it can be deduced from the information provided by the interviewers that the transfer of money to companies is an unrestricted method and at the discretion of the chairs of the Legislative Finance Committee.

Names like Lorena Pena from FMLN are like this; Milena de Escalone from the arena; Norman Guijano, from Arena; Zero Cruise Sepeda, PCN Mario Bones, PCN Yancy Arbina, FMLN Rotolpo Parker, PTC And Guadeloupe Vasquez, the government’s coalition partner, are also from Ghana; Julio Camaro and Gerson Martinez from FMLN.

The above differs from a document issued by former legislator George Estrada dated November 4, 2019, where former congressman Bones has agreed to appoint former congressman Norman Guijano as the legislature’s budget and finance officer. , To former Congresswoman Arbina and former Congressman Parker.

“Were they the ones who saw those comments sent to the Finance Commission?” Asked Deputy Alexia Rivas from New Ideas. “Yes,” replied George Estrada, a former legislator and lawyer.