Identifier | Created | Classification | Origin |
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09TEGUCIGALPA1099 | 2009-11-03 01:02:00 | UNCLASSIFIED | Embassy Tegucigalpa |
VZCZCXYZ0000 RR RUEHWEB DE RUEHTG #1099 3070102 ZNR UUUUU ZZH R 030102Z NOV 09 FM AMEMBASSY TEGUCIGALPA TO SECSTATE WASHDC 0976 |
UNCLAS TEGUCIGALPA 001099 |
1. (U) Summary. The Congress selected the three new magistrates of the Supreme Accounting Tribunal (TSC) on October 14. The selection process has come under attack for lacking transparency. The TSC is an important institution because of its government oversight function. The TSC submits its findings directly to the Attorney General for prosecution. End Summary. 2. (U) The National Congress selected the new magistrates of the Supreme Accounting Tribunal (TSC) on October 14. The newly elected magistrates will take office on December 7. The election of the TSC generally takes place in November, but this year the election was moved up because Congress recessed from October 19 to December 1 in order to facilitate campaigning by its members for the general election scheduled for November 29. 3. (U) The Supreme Accounting Tribunal is comparable to the Office of Management and Budget. It is an independent government agency that oversees all administrative acts of public officials who handle government funds. It is currently investigating and documenting over 300 cases of mismanagement and fraud which allegedly took place during past and current administrations. The incumbents of the TSC have urged the National Congress to reform the Acquisitions and Contract Law to make the requirements for hiring and contracting by the government stricter. The TSC has also recommended greater regulation of public spending, including representational allowances, severance pay ceilings, cellular phone bills, salaries, etc., in view of the enormous abuse of public funds. 4. (U) The regulatory law regarding the TSC provides that its three members will be elected for a seven year term by a two-thirds vote of the entire legislature. The law prohibits the reelection of the incumbent members of the TSC. The TSC presidency is rotated annually among its members, in the order in which the magistrates were elected to the TSC. TSC magistrates must be Honduran by birth, over thirty-five years of age, and hold a university degree in economics, administration, law, or finance. 5. (U) The political parties engaged in intense lobbying on behalf of their candidates. On October 14, the Congress selected by a show of hands the new members of the TSC. The new magistrates of the TSC are: Daysi Oseguera Duron de Anchecta, who has served as Secretary General of the TSC for the past seven years and was proposed by the National Party; Miguel Mejia, general services administrator of the National Congress, who also served at the National Telephone Company (HONDUTEL) and the National Institute for Pensions and Retirement (INJUPEN), who was proposed by the Liberal Party; and Jorge Bogran, lawyer and former Deputy Attorney General for Environment in the Maduro administration, who was proposed by the Christian Democratic Party. The new magistrates will assume their positions on December 7. The two largest parties, the Liberal and National Parties, and the small Christian Democratic Party each received one representative on the TSC; the result of a political pact entered into when the institution was created on June 6, 2002. 6. (U) Congresswoman Silvia Ayala of the Democratic Unification Party (UD), one of the small political parties, criticized the mechanism for appointing the new magistrates on the grounds that it lacked transparency and was the result of back room deals. The president of the National Anticorruption Council (CNA), Oswaldo Canales, joined Ayala in questioning the lack of transparency in the TSC selection process. Canales said that there should have been public hearings, like the ones which took place when the judges of the Supreme Court were chosen in January 2009. Canales said public officials must be men and women of the highest moral caliber. 7. (U) Comment: The TSC is an important institution because of its watchdog role over the government. The lack of transparency in its selection was a significant step backwards given the public processes used early this year to pick a new Supreme Court and Attorney General. LLORENS |