The great demonstration against corruption

Both State inefficiency and corruption are public problems which have a direct impact on the well-being of citizens and which prevent access to fundamental economic and social rights such as access to water, health and education, among others.

Regarding inefficiency, for example, the Peruvian Institute of Economics (PEI) reported that during the 2019-2022 municipal management period, outgoing local governments only executed 60% of their investment budget and stopped investing altogether S/40 billion soles over the past four years. This institute explains that part of the problem is that the budget is not necessarily aligned with the spending capacity of municipalities. It also shows, for example, that mining districts that have seen huge increases in available resources from cannons and royalties have low run rates.

They cite the district of He was happy In Arequipa, whose resources for investment increased by 126% between 2019 and 2022, but the amount executed was only 25%. Another example they mention concerns the Municipality of Santa Ana de Huaycahuacho in Ayacucho whose investment budget was multiplied by more than 20 throughout 2022 but the execution of public investments was only 8.5%. The information of PEI shows that it is not enough to have more resources if they are not used by effective local or regional governments. The big loser is the citizen and his access to fundamental rights.

Let’s move on to corruption. Accurately measuring corruption is a nearly impossible task because it is difficult to quantify all the transactions that specifically seek to be done behind the scenes, clandestine, against the law and without registration. For this reason, perception indices, citizen confidence and studies help to try to calculate the costs of their damages according to what is known to be approximated and surely the results will always be modest compared to the reality where the corruption reigns with impunity to the detriment of citizens. Thus we have that, according to the National Institute of Statistics and Informatics (HERE), there Corruption continues to be the greatest concern of Peruvians in their measurement of the citizen’s perception of governance, democracy there trust in institutions between April and September 2022. According to this survey, corruption is manifested by collection of gifts, tips, bribes, kickbacks and abuse of public office.

In Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index (IPC) Peru got position 36 in 2022, which is the same position it got in 2021. IPC ranks 180 countries according to their perceptions of the level of corruption in the public sector, and according to its extent, a score closer to zero means that the country is very corrupt and countries that score close to 100 are considered very clean with a very low or no corruption. More than two-thirds of countries score below 50, including Peruin red and closer to heavily corrupted levels.

According to the Liber Center, until January 2023, 90% of the regional governors elected for the period 2023-2026 are carrying out tax investigations for various criminal offenses. Thus, 29 instances between governors and deputy governors have a total of 556 ongoing processes in the public ministry. The same Liber Center warned in 2022 of a total of 557 active tax investigations against regional governors, 70% of which involve corruption crimes, and also reported that the 25 regional governors in the previous period had a minimum of two against a maximum. of 62 assets. tax investigations. In an estimate of the Republic Comptroller realized that the Peru lost more than 25,000 million soles due to corruption and ineffective authorities in 2022, and according to its owner, responsibilities have been identified in 8,730 public officials, of which some 3,000 belong to the national government. All that could have been done for the benefit of the most vulnerable citizens with these stolen funds and if we had elected citizens of integrity, capacity and efficiency.

Southern Peru faces a series of crises due to protests fueled by a radical political agenda which benefits from not complying with the social demands of the state, and these protests in turn generate problems of shortages of food, medicine, roadblocks or the bankruptcy of the tourism sector, but if we look back to see A lot of It must be said that six governors were involved in acts of corruption from 2003 to 2022 and that to date there are approximately 232 paralyzed works as reported by the digital media Vigilante. Again the cocktail of inefficiency and corruption.

In the country, we are facing countless crises, but I believe that we will have a way out as long as we identify, recognize and emphasize that the inefficiency and corruption of the state These are the two perverse problems that make it impossible to satisfy the fundamental rights and social demands of citizens, even in cities that have more resources to satisfy them.

Few see that this ballast represents a problem of human rights, since economic and social rights are also human rights, and corruption attacks the first article of our Constitution: “The defense of the human person and respect for his dignity are the ultimate supreme authority of society and of the State. Corruption beats every day what is contained in this article.

When corruption is the cause of people living in poverty, hunger, patients without care, unfinished work, children without access to water, food or the opportunity to develop in dignity or education is to violate the human person and respect for his dignity as the supreme person. goals of society and the state.

The vision of a Peru bigger than his problems seems to give in to corruption because today there is no doubt that corruption is bigger than us. The fight against it is timid, insufficient, disconnected from international standards, and the devastation it causes in the quality of life of Peruvians is used by political groups who have undertaken an ideological war against the Constitution instead of fighting the main stumbling block that prevents the benefits of economic growth from reaching the people, the citizens, the Peruvians where they are most needed. The great protest that we must undertake must be against corruption because in a kleptocracy, the authorities and officials are more concerned with stealing public resources than with looking after the basic rights of citizens, systematically violating the supreme objective of society and of the State that it must be the defense of the human person and the respect of his dignity.