Congress to pay over S/740,000 to former APRA Congressman Tula Benites

The president of the Congress José Williams, and the parliamentarians who make up the Board of Directors have decided to pay S/745,420 to the former APRA deputy Tula Benites. This amount would be equivalent to all the salaries that the former parliamentarian has stopped receiving since 2008, when she was suspended because she was accused of having hired a non-existent assistant in her office, named Juan Carlos Cuadros Noriega .

As evidence, it was learned that this alleged worker never went to the office or collected the photocheck that accredited him as a civil servant in the Congress.

This statement was made through a constitutional complaint for the alleged commission of the crimes of embezzlement, collusion and generic lying.

After approval, article 25 of the Rules of the Congress, which indicates that the salaries of a suspended member of Congress must be deposited in a special account. The accumulated amount will only be returned if the Supreme Court acquits the MP of the charges against her.

This was the case in the case of Tula Beniteswell the Special Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court decided to acquit her of the complaint after concluding that she was not responsible for hiring fake assistant Juan Carlos Cuadros Noriega, who was harshly criticized by Parliament.

Padro Sánchez, Supreme Public Prosecutor, announced that he would file an action for annulment so that this conviction would have no effect and therefore Tula Benites may be reinvestigated and subject to an oral trial. But this intention did not materialize.

By this decision, Tula Benites sued Parliament in the Twenty-Third Civil Court of Lima and demanded compensation of 2.5 million soles because they had caused damage by suspending it.

The Aprista also used constitutional Court because his request for execution, to which he asked for the payment of S/629,200, was rejected. This happened in first and second instance before the Third Constitutional Court and the Second Civil Chamber of Lima. But the tribunes decided that their legal action was inadmissible because the former deputy had already gone to the Twenty-third Court of Lima.

However, six years later, this court has not rendered a decision, so in 2021 Tula Benites He waives his trial and the file will be definitively archived in August 2022.

Meanwhile, in the Parliament the Department of Human Resources prepared a report in which it concluded that the former congresswoman should receive S/745,420.

With this amount set, the Board of Directors of the current Congress chaired by José Williams Zapata, decided on February 16, 2023 that the General Directorate of Administration carry out “the corresponding administrative acts in order to execute the payment of the remuneration due in favor” of the Benites.