“Changing accountability would pose risks to transparency”

Speaking from the organization Transparency for Colombia, they expressed concern about the possible abolition of the requirement that candidates for popular election positions currently have to submit their income and expense statements to the National Electoral Council (CNE).

The NGO’s executive director, Andrés Hernández, issued the warning after the media revealed an alleged directive approved by the full chamber of the National Electoral Council that would seek to ensure that said responsibility for the campaigns is carried out only before the political parties.

“From Transparency to Colombia, it is considered that while it is important for political parties to take greater responsibility with regard to the process of training, mentoring and accountability for the campaign funding of the candidates they support, this apparent decision by the CNE would conflict with the current constitutional and regulatory framework in terms of campaign accountability, and would pose various risks to the transparency of political funding in the country,” emphasized Hernández.

Hernández insisted that by abolishing the requirement to report the revenues and expenses of any campaign and their registration through Cuentas Claras, “it would weaken the state’s capacity to monitor alleged electoral irregularities and crimes related to election financing in a timely manner.” , since without this individualized information it will be even more difficult to control the campaigns”.

“There would be a setback in the progress the CNE has made over the past 11 years in monitoring and controlling campaign revenues and expenses as they would be replaced by a large number of documents in physical formats generated during the the campaign development of the campaigns not available in Cuentas Claras”.

He added: “We have sent a letter to the plenary magistrates of the National Electoral Council expressing our deep concern about this apparent change which, if true, would be a serious setback in the accountability of the candidates and a risk to our democracy, in particular with Looking Ahead to the 2023 municipal elections.”

He stated that the Cuentas Claras application has contributed to the compliance of said public reporting information by becoming a very useful tool for control bodies, political organizations, journalists, interest groups and the general public to facilitate monitoring, auditing and auditing of candidate reports and to encourage.

“This application has enabled citizens to inform themselves to make more accurate electoral decisions when casting their vote, and identify potential risks and conflicts of interest that affect the good performance of popular election officials.”