translated from Spanish: Comptroller questioned the recurring appearance of mayors in mornings and criticized the delivery of information “obtained in office”

Through a trade, the Comptroller General referred to the role of the mayors and the measures they have determined in the face of the coronavirus pandemic. The television appearance of the communal chiefs has been recurrent in recent weeks, and therefore the agency has received a number of complaints, which is why it was pronounced. “The recurring participation of mayors in radio and television programmes during working hours – particularly in mornings – and the delivery of information obtained in office by those means; without adopting the minimum safeguards and formalities, in addition to frivolizing the public service, it may involve unduly distracting time that must be used for the work of the municipal authority,” they said. The Comptroller also held that “in the same way as an overutilization of the personal image of the mayor, assigning an electoral benefit to those serving that public office, in disarray of equal opportunities for the rest of the citizens”. With regard to the quarantine decrees that were executed by mayors, the auditing rather held that “it is necessary to point out that it is for the President of the Republic and the heads of national defense, as appropriate, to take decisions that signify affect fundamental rights in the terms established by the indicated legislation without it being for municipalities to decree measures such as those referred to”.

Original source in Spanish