President attends launch of Anti-Corruption Observatory; announces new penalties for campaign financing violations
This morning, Michelle Bachelet, the President of Chile, participated in the launch of the Anti-Corruption Observatory. In her remarks during the ceremony held at the Alameda Cultural Center, the President said that “the more than 200 proposals presented by the Council chaired by Eduardo Engel only serve to validate the magnitude of the transformational process Chile needs to restore trust in institutions.”
“This process couldn’t wait any longer, because it was critical for our democracy, our markets, and our coexistence. The public understands this and demands it. We must take steps to leave behind all forms of corruption, conflicts of interest, and poor business practices, which are merely expressions of the same thing: abuse that is generated by inequality.”
The President explained that “based on the Council’s proposals and our exchanges with research centers, political parties, and civil society representatives, we are presenting an agenda that contains a set of urgent and viable measures. All of the 14 administrative measures contained in the agenda have already been implemented. This means that all measures that only require executive action are already operating.”
In addition, she explained that in regard to the legislative bills, “of a total of 21, 17 are already in process: either they have been passed or they are being considered by Congress. The remaining four require approval of prior reforms or are undergoing further study before being presented.”
Along these lines, the President emphasized that “the executive branch’s willingness to move forward is clear. Of the bills submitted, six are considered extremely urgent and are moving quickly through Congress. In addition, another eight bills are in the advanced or final stage of the process. And others have been approved and are awaiting review by the Constitutional Tribunal. Thus, with several legislative processes underway, we have already approved the constitutional autonomy of the Electoral Service, which will increase monitoring of elections.”
The President added, “Next Monday we will enact a law that penalizes violations of campaign financing regulations, with the possibility of forfeiture. This message is aimed directly at those who violated the faith of their fellow Chileans in activities as important as representing them in Congress, in the Regional Councils, in municipal governments; and I hope that in the next election, the intendants will also be directly elected.”
According to the President, anyone who is penalized under the law will be prohibited from serving in public office, regardless of whether it is an elected position, for a period of two years. “This is one of the clearest signals to the public; it is a ‘red card’ to show that we will not accept scams that are so damaging to democracy and its institutions,” she concluded.