The NGO Transparencia Venezuela, part of the international Anti-Corruption Coalition, assures that the country is immersing in a complex humanitarian crisis due to the embezzlement and diversion of public funds to benefit political groups.
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According to a report released by the local correspondent of the global NGO Transparency International, the embezzlement and diversion of public funds has had a “devastating effect” on the quality of life of citizens. Today, they suffer from deficiencies in services such as health, electricity, drinking water, domestic gas, and gasoline, among other problems faced by ordinary Venezuelans.
Corruption is so total here that the NGO now calls the problem: the Great Corruption. But the GDP in Venezuela has dropped more since 2014 than the US did after the 1929 crash.
“The pattern of Great Corruption consolidated in Venezuela during the last two decades, has submerged the country in an unprecedented Complex Humanitarian Crisis. Furthermore, the economic crisis and the political and social conflict have pushed more than 5.1 million people to emigrate, which international organisms have recognized as the worst forced displacement in Latin America and the second in the world, after Syria,” the NGO states on its December report on the issue.
Some 90% of Venezuela lacks running water, while 12% of the territory is now an illegal gold mine, as Maduro launched several gold projects without the mandatory parliamentary approval. The country is entering its fourth year of hyperinflation. The most emblematic cases of corruption in recent Latin American history (Odebrecht, PDVSA, Derwick, and the drug-dealing Cartel de Los Soles) all originated in Venezuela.
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Corruption has been blamed for a 90% decline in oil production, from 3.5 million barrels a day in 1999 to around 300,000 b/d currently. The opposition-held National Assembly legislative reported that some $400 billion of the $1-trillion plus Venezuela received during the first ten years of Hugo Chavez administration was stolen or mismanaged.
The NGO ratifies its commitment and willingness to evaluate, diagnose and denounce corruption while gathering proposals and recommendations from different sectors of society, businesspeople, unions, professional associations, academics, universities, churches, and organized communities to achieve the transformation that all Venezuelans desire.
Additional information by Carlos Camacho.
