Assembly ignores court, blocks lawmaker shady spending audit

Officials of the National Assembly have again prevented staff of the Comptroller General from entering to audit the spending records of lawmakers in spite of a ruling by the Supreme Court.

The audit was initially ordered by  Comptroller Federico Humbert on May 15, 2018, but deputyYanibel Ábrego, president of the Assembly prevented it and even presented an appeal of guarantees before the Supreme Court.

The appeal was rejected by the Court and the Comptroller’s Office could do its job without any problem. something seemingly unknown by the Assembly although it was widely publicized.

The Comptroller General’s Office described the move  as assured that it was an “arbitrary and unlawful”

For Comptroller Humbert, “it is unacceptable that the First State Organ, in charge of approving the laws and regulations that all citizens are obliged to comply with, should be the one who promotes in an open example of rebellion and insubordination to the Supreme Court of Justice, the fulfillment of the Constitution and the Law”

“After the disastrous results that emanated from the audits we made to payrolls 172 and donations from the National Assembly, I am not surprised that this Institution insists on preventing the

Comptroller General of the Republic, and therefore the citizenship, from knowing how the funds of that form were handled. There y are more than $59 million for which the Assembly does not want to be accountable; who does not owe it, does not have to fear it.

“We will resort to all the legal instances that the Law empowers us to carry out our oversight responsibility to which the Constitution obliges us, “said Humbert.

An earlier investigation by La Prensa uncovered massive alleged fraud with checks of over $1million going to the same bank cashier, jobs with salaries but no work