On Monday, the Council for Transparency (CPLT) revealed the results of a report to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where it was revealed that in the case of the 41 diplomatic agencies present in other countries – between consulates, astaltures and embassies – there is a total monthly expenditure, as of October 2019, of almost 1.44 billion pesos (US$ 1,995,905). Of this figure, 63% were embassies ($906,328,221) and 37% for consulates (for $529,625,376).
To define the set of nations analyzed, the CPLT used three criteria: that our country had high trade – China, the United States and Japan – ; those who concentrate the most significant figures of Chileans – Argentina, Canada, Sweden, Spain-; and those that did not meet any of these characteristics – South Korea, Azerbaijan, Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica.
However, what CPTL emphasizes most is the difficulty in obtaining this information. “We believe that opacity persists in some processes related to the work of the state. Our call, in a context where the crisis of trust we have experienced for years, is to practice proactive transparency that allows citizens to access information that may be of interest to them and from there exercise social control,” said CPLT President Jorge Jaraquemada.
“Chile has embassies in more than 130 countries, so as a Council we found it relevant to establish, in a limited sample, whether these distributions comply with obligations of transparency and access to information, in an exercise that involved requesting information and crossing it with data from open sources to characterize these distributions abroad and a series of benefits received by its officials” Added.
In the analysis, the CPLT was able to estimate that half of the resources in these representations were intended for the lease of properties for the use of consular offices and for the residence of diplomatic staff; representation, protocol and ceremonial expenses; and maintenance costs for buildings and furniture. In the case of the 2019 lump sum allocated to “representation, protocol and ceremonial expenses” it reached a sum of USD $317,575 (equivalent to $228,981,102). 20% of this figure was spent in the United States.
As stated in the report of the CpLT’s Audit Directorate, “the structural features of the agency and its management, the manner in which the background corresponding to Active Transparency – in particular as regards the Budget, and staff and its Remunerations – is informed of the functioning of the Foreign Service and limits the monitoring and control that citizens can carry out to its management”.
Despite these and other obstacles arising from the limited information provided by some of the bodies consulted, the Council was able to establish a breakdown of the resources that staff receive for remuneration and other benefits governed mainly by multilateral agreements.
Of the bodies whose 2019 expenditures were analysed, the Council found that half of the resources went to the item “Other expenditure on goods and services”, with a total of USD $996,963 (equivalent to $718,840,232 pesos), which include the salary of representatives of the representations.
Under this concept, the lease of used real estate for the purposes of consular offices and for the residence of diplomatic staff (38% of the total expenditure, equivalent to $542,246,285 pesos) and the payment of staff to hire (with 34% of the overall figure, equivalent to $486,622,426 pesos) were identified as main expenses.
Read the full report at the following link.
