To start, the astronomical figure: $55,037,152,338.22. In total, 55,000 million. The late President Hugo Chávez disposed of that amount through dozens of “funds” he created between 1999 and 2012 with complete discretion and without any oversight.
By Valentina Lares and Marcos David Valverde / ArmandoInfo
The calculations prepared by Armando.info take as a starting point a series of documents leaked from the headquarters of the Venezuelan Executive and shared by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP, for its acronym in English). Is. These are four reports from the Ministry of Planning and Finance, the National Treasury Office and the Bank for Economic and Social Development (BANDES), in addition to a presentation from Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA). The documents date from between 2007 and 2012.
Although most of the announced funds allocations were in bolivars, for the purposes of totalization in this work, Venezuelan currency figures were converted into dollars using the official rate established by exchange controls imposed by the government in the years in which they occurred. There were funds. Were made.
The documents reveal the dispersal of “funds” for all kinds of works or projects and at the same time confirm the financial administration, with management entirely at the discretion of Hugo Chávez and without any rigidity. From these documents, the existence of at least 40 funds was identified, but the exposed figure comes from the allocation of 31 of them, as there is no information about the amount allocated for the rest, let alone whether it was executed. Is. This number does not include the National Development Fund (FONDEN) with more than $174,898.10 million and the China-Venezuela Joint Fund with about $68,678.21 million, the best-known and strongest in terms of provision of public funds.
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(tags to translate)Hugo Ch\u001vez