The previous legislatures took public funds to inject them into their political parties and NGO fronts. Everything was led by members of ARENA and the FMLN.

Raúl Castillo and Jorge Castro, deputies of Nuevas Ideas, affirmed that the internal audit carried out by the Legislative Assembly of previous legislatures confirms that between ARENA and the FMLN there was a merger of interests and powers to take public funds and transfer them to their parties. Politicians, companies, and NGO fronts.

“What they did was steal in an orchestrated way. They [ARENA and FMLN officials] conspired to steal money from the public administration, and that was seen in all the state portfolios. These political mercenaries navigated between impunity and power to take public money and inject it into their political parties without anyone telling them anything, because the Attorney General’s Office, the Court of Accounts, the Constitutional Chamber, and the deputies were bought” — said deputy Castro.

In addition, the parliamentarians explained that the internal audit is based on four areas of work: management, human resources, financial and legal, in which, according to Deputy Castillo, a lack of control of money and the non-existence of legal justifications for the funds that were spent by Sigfrido Reyes, former president of the Legislative Assembly from 2011 to 2015, were found.

Preliminarily, $17 million was misused by Reyes, now an asylum seeker in Mexico. “In the old Legislative Assembly, they worked with bribery in the form of black briefcases, gifts, favors, and impunity” — Castillo criticized in the TVO channel interview.

ALSO READ: Embezzlement of Sigfrido Reyes would increase with audits

In addition, he assured that the money that was intended for social, educational and infrastructure programs aimed at the Salvadoran population “ended up in the pockets of Sigfrido Reyes.”

Castillo claimed that Reyes authorized himself millions of dollars for travel, building rentals and travel expenses.

For his part, Castro indicated that the results that have been released so far on the internal audit of previous legislatures “are only the beginning,” because, according to the parliamentarian, they are providing more tools to the Attorney General’s Office and to the entire judicial system so that the investigative work can begin.