Too much too soon

Flores and corruption

The Flores administration will end in a few months, and that is why it is convenient to start evaluating the main proposals of his government. The President himself seems to be involved in this logic. Lately, there has been plenty of publicity about his accomplishments and many of his ministers seem to be evaluating the President’s performance. All of them, the President and the ministers are trying to focus on the governmental accomplishments. According to them, the actions of this administration know no precedents. All of the paraphernalia that comes along with the publicity about these “impeccable accomplishments” cannot be taken out of the electoral context. However, this publicity is due to the fact that Flores wishes to make a lasting impression on the collective memory of the country. It is important to remember, for example, that last year several leaders form ARENA dared to question the mistakes made by the government in the field of social investment. They thought that these mistakes led to the electoral defeat of 2003.

In this context, even if this is not about examining all of the aspects of the governmental performance, it is necessary to mention one of the proposals made by the candidate from ARENA, a proposal that has caught the attention of the country during the last few weeks. On March 22nd of 1999, after winning the elections, the President pointed at the need to promote transparent actions and stop with the corruption that sometimes takes place at the high circles of the government. During this time, the newspaper La Prensa Grafica reported the declarations made by Flores in the following way: “Elected President Francisco Flores said yesterday that every year the population will have the opportunity to know the patrimonial state of the members of his cabinet. This means that before the Flores administration begins, the elected President will publicly reveal the assets and the actions of the official chosen as part of his team. Flores considers that this is a ‘transparent’ measure of his administration”.

In addition, according to the same newspaper, the President thought that it was important to create an ethics code before the eyes of the population. On the other hand, he declared that he was “studying the possibility to have a person inside the cabinet to complete the work of the rest of the comptrollers. It will be a person dedicated to check the transparency of the public administration”. In the same way, he said that he rejected corruption, and he suggested that effectively punishing the criminals was the best example to help preserve the integrity of the State’s officials.

The corrupt officials in the Flores era
The Flores administration has been tarnished by different accusations against the corrupt public officials. No one knows if the fact that Flores referred to this issue earlier was a premonition or just a simple promise because no one is doing anything to fight against this problem. The truth is that the alleged ethic compromise never became a reality, and no one was named to look after the transparency of the performance of the most important public officials. In addition, none of the accused received an exemplar punishment, as once Flores promised. On the contrary –we will discuss the Perla case later- the President portrayed himself as the person who would guarantee the integrity of the questioned officials.

The last official who was in the public eye was the former Minister of the Public Health System. This person was reported to the authorities for taking personal economic advantage from the plan of contingencies of the Salvadoran Social Security Institute (ISSS, in Spanish) because of the strike organized by the workers of this institution. A business company that was connected with the former minister allegedly rendered its services to the ISSS, while other firms were left out. At the same time, the Comptrollers’ Office declared that the actions of the officials from the ISSS were illegal. When a state of emergency was declared inside the ISSS, several officials undertook the tasks that only the congressmen are allowed to follow. In addition, the emergency state was declared even before the beginning of the strike.

Despite his former statements, President Flores defended the honesty of his officials. A business company of one of his ministers rendered its services to the ISSS and the President thought that there was nothing wrong with that. He did not seem to think that there was anything wrong with the fact that some of the people responsible for the ISSS had usurped a number of functions that did not concern them (as the person responsible for the Comptrollers Office declared). The President did not seem to think that there was anything wrong with illegally declaring an emergency, something that enabled them to make some deals in order to favor certain companies connected with his party.

Another alleged case of corruption is connected with the present Minister of Economy, Miguel Lacayo. In December of 2000, the newspaper La Prensa Grafica revealed that Lacayo had made some decisions that were not exactly legal or ethical when he decided to eliminate the tariffs from the importation of the necessary components to fabricate batteries. It is important to remember that back then Lacayo was the president of a company called Batteries from El Salvador and Parts for Batteries, the companies that were the main beneficiaries of such decision. A situation like this can be followed by the logical conclusions of the case. Lacayo took advantage of his position in order to favor his own companies, regardless of the consequences that this might bring for the rest of the businessmen who had similar companies or if this was a decision that affected the public treasury.

In this occasion, the most important leaders of ARENA defended Lacayo. President Flores, as it was expected, closed the ranks with his minister by saying that this measure had been positive for other companies. However, according to a journalistic investigation, 62 shipments of tax-free components out of a total of 66 belonged to the business companies owned by the official. In addition, other business company owners accepted that there never was any reason at all to use an emergency supplying process, since the inventories were at their best level.

The Presidential House did not give much importance to the case of an anomalous bid back when Ana Majano was the Minister of Environmental Affairs for the Flores administration.

She acted against a law that stipulates the following:
“The business companies, the societies, the juridical people or the consortiums mainly dedicated to the commercialization of vehicles, spare parts, or to the places where vehicles are repaired” cannot check the gas emission system for vehicles by disqualifying a company that did meet the stipulations. The company involved questioned the fact that the bid was granted to another company that had no experience at all in the control of the gas emission system. One of the companies was dedicated to the construction field and the other to the design of undergarments.

The President had no reactions at all when the person at the head of the probity section of the Supreme Court stated that even if his officials had declared their income taxes, it was inconsistent, contradictory, and incomplete. “In several cases –said the official-, we have found identical accounts in their assets and liabilities from the day they took possession of their duties to the day they end with them”.

The Perla Case
With the formerly mentioned records, the Perla case calls the attention of any observer. Why is President Flores declaring at this point that he always suspected of the illicit wealth of the former director of the ANDA? If that is actually the case, why did not anybody request an audit at the time that the former official left the ANDA? Why did the President decided along with Perla to inaugurate the unfinished construction works that are now the proofs of the misappropriation of funds and the trafficking of influences committed by Perla? Why did the departure of Perla from the ANDA in 2002 was presented as a voluntary decision due to strictly personal reasons?

The revelations about the illicit enrichment of Perla and several of his closest collaborators came out to the open a year after he left the ANDA. In addition, the scandal was made public in the context of another conflict between one of the partners of the former director of the ANDA and a certain minister from the Flores administration who apparently is interested in the gas emission control system project mentioned earlier in this article. The very public case of Perla has plenty of aspects that can be discussed. However, some people are probably wishing to just drop the subject.

All of these aspects suggest that the fact that the name Perla was brought to the public light does not necessarily mean that the Executive power is trying to be transparent. The President should explain to the Salvadoran population and to the judicial authorities why did he keep Perla at the head of the ANDA despite his suspicions about Perla’s illicit activities. Flores has to take part of the political responsibility for the actions of Perla. In addition, by the time that Perla was ready to leave the ANDA (now they say that it was actually a destitution), the President was accompanied by the former official in the inauguration of the inadequately called “a great construction work”. It was said back then that ANDA was going to offer more water that the inhabitants of San Salvador were able to use. Almost two years later, the promise was not fulfilled.

On the other hand, Flores will have to explain before the justice system for the actions of his former official. No one knows if there will be a trial against Perla, or even if all of the friendly favors and the corruption that went on in ANDA during the Perla administration will be clarified. No one knows if the Attorney General’s Office will have enough courage to investigate the exact circumstances of the Perla arrest and the possible conflicts of interests between some of the most important members of ARENA. If an eventual trial of Perla does not resolve these doubts, this whole process will be far from contributing to stop the corruption of some of the most important officials. In addition, this will be a deceiving situation for those who expected the Perla case to become a trial for both the Flores administration and ARENA.

Why wait?

Exactly when we are just a few weeks away from the presidential elections, the political parties have not been very precise about their governmental plan. As for the economy, ARENA just keeps saying that it is necessary to maintain the system of freedoms and that, therefore, it is necessary to accept that the country is on its way towards development. According to this belief, it would make no sense to change the direction of things by choosing a new government that might waste the alleged achievements of the last 15 years. On the other hand, the opposition that comes from the left wing says that the time has come to change the prevailing economic policy.

In addition to these basic ideas, the parties have not managed to discuss the national problems in a responsible fashion. The political parties have just spoken about policies and economic measures in a very general manner. So far, they have not presented an actual governmental program that might indicate how will they deal with problems such as the structural unemployment, the commercial deficit, the external debt, the public debt, among others. It seems that publicity is the privileged field of this campaign, not the ideas or any kind of analysis.

In a way, too many fallacies have characterized the political activities on the run for the presidency. Many of the sympathizers are also making their own campaign, even if it is made in an indirect way. Through the press, these people clearly speak about their political position, and they rave about their favorite party while they insult the opponents. Their postures show how little capacity they have to reflect, and that is how they end up accepting quietly the discourse that their favorite party sells.

Many of the people who believe in the right wing think that now more than ever everyone has to be alert before the actions of the left wing. For them, even if the present government has made “slight mistakes with the social policies”, it is necessary to give it a second chance, and that it is necessary that the Salvadorans learn to be patient. They say that any ambitious project, such as getting the nation one step ahead and improving the life standards of the inhabitants are long term projects. Therefore, in the discourse of the official party, the best thing is to bet for the development of the nation and wait because “the best is yet to come”.

For them, the country’s development is evident. In their minds, it is enough to see that now there are more shopping centers, better roads, and beltways. And now there are plenty of international artists coming over, there are more people with cellular phones, among other achievements. Actually, all of these things are, in a way, good for the development of a country; however, it is necessary to understand that those aspects are not determinant factors or anything of the sort. In addition, the development of a country should not be limited to such narrow concepts as, for instance, the amount of shopping malls or the amount of people with a cell phone. In order to reach the necessary level of development, it is important to consider those aspects that do give some sense to the economic system: the welfare of the human being.

How good is it to have a country with a gross formation of steady capital that keeps growing, when the condition in which most of the people live keeps becoming more and more deteriorated? How good is the existence of so many goods and services if at the end of the road the majority cannot have access to them, since the purchasing power of the salaries does not allow people to have them? No mistakes can be made, the fact that there is a certain level of development does not necessarily mean that the life standards are actually improving.

In this sense, it is very questionable to say that it is necessary to give the present government a second chance. After the privatization of several of the public services, the benefits that were once promised to the population are not here yet. On the other hand, after the dollarization of the economy, it is not quite clear if this measure was the best solution to resolve the economic crisis that began back in 1996. That is why, how can we be sure that a Free Trade Agreement with the United States is the best solution for the development of the country? After so many failed economic policies, why wait another five years for the best things to come?

The report of the Development Program of the United Nations (PNUD, in Spanish) for El Salvador indicates how delicate the problems of the national economy actually are. This crisis is characterized by an uneven distribution of the income, which is now even more concentrated than it was by the early nineties. The fiscal deficit and the external debt keep increasing because of all the money that the country has borrowed from foreign nations. That indebtedness is in part the result of the money wasted by the corrupt officials, people like the recently arrested former president of the ANDA.

Why continue with the same economic model in a country where surviving is a challenge? For those who think that we have to keep waiting it is necessary to say that: the social crisis created by the deficiently performed economic reforms opened the opportunities for a party from the opposition to arrive to the Executive power. This is because the government that leaded these reforms has concentrated the distribution of the income. The political success of a privatization program always has to be accompanied by a strategy of efficiency in order to increase the welfare of the less fortunate members of the society.

The last three governments have not been able to keep a coherent economic policy connected with the needs of the population. This is even more obvious if we are speaking of the public policies of the present administration. Any short-term policy will always end up establishing a populist action, such as the application of the “Iron Fist Plan” in order to, according to those who defend this plan, put a quick end to delinquency. Therefore, those who are guilty for not keeping a correct vision in the direction of the development of the country are not the citizens, but those who make the decisions in the country.

An incorrect vision can be translated into a series of incoherent decisions that are part of the economic policy applied by a government that only seems to be concerned about winning the elections. A “turbo-dollarization”, as the economist Javier Ibisate called the process of dollarization, and a Free Trade Agreement negotiated in a fast track intend to obtain economic results in a short term. It does not matter what kind of social results will come from that.

It is also necessary to identify that a transformation of the governmental direction of the country has to be performed in a responsible fashion. It is necessary to avoid any decision that might be inspired in the present urgencies. As it was mentioned earlier in this article, a government that does not have well defined plans in the long-term will always have to implement its economic policy by improvising. Eventually, this will become a reality full of economic crisis, which, in the end, will have to be paid by the population.