Corruption at the Sugar Mill

Corruption at the Sugar Mill

Venezuelan president Chavez utilized his administration’s military and advisors from Cuba to exacerbate corruption in the sugar mill. The project was total impunity. It is noted that the project was run by about 16 officers and their advisors who were accused of stealing approximately 1.5 million US dollars, from the sugar Mill project. Another scenario that demonstrates impunity in Chavez leadership is when the Army Engineers Unit was accused of mismanaging of 1.5 billion US dollars out of 2.6 billion US dollars allocated for the project. Chavez was aware of this impunity because the officer in charge Agricultural sector, in his administration, acknowledged the failure for not providing the evidence, yet he was mindful of officers stealing public funds (Hawkins & Kirk, 201-209). When he was questioned he said, “We were focusing on parliamentary election and did not want to produce a shame that would damage our administration.” Chavez administration was very corrupt as intensified misuse of public resources, bribery, discrimination, and abuse of political powers.

Moreover, in the sugar mill company, contracts were awarded to the top government’s officials without bidding. Despite the Law stipulating that all government contracts ought to be done through bidding procedure, except national emergency circumstances, there was no bidding order. The report by Transparency indicates that more than 90% of all government contracts during the Chavez era were awarded without bidding. This shows how his administration is corrupt since it is the primary source of individualistic enrichment by the fraudulent government officials.

Corruption at the Supreme Tribunal of Justice

Additionally is the crime at the Supreme Tribunal of Justice. This is another major corruption case that occurred during the reign of Chavez. The situation exploded when the interior minister ashamed one of the magistrates for squandering public money in the procurement of the court office space. The magistrate attacked back the president with his ministers for running a group of corrupt officials, who defend drug smugglers (Guillermo & Manzetti, 26-38). All these accusations had no impact since the officials he alleged still retained their positions.

Acquisition of the airplane contrary to the Law was another mega corruption case in Chavez administration. During his visit to the Middle East using an Airbus belonging to a Qatar royal family, Chavez desired it and decided to acquire one of the same kind. Contrary to the Venezuelan laws and constitution regulating the government’s spending, he purchased an airplane without providing any budget. It is ironical for him to publicly declare that they would not procure any aircraft in the government since they got enough of them, yet later bought an aircraft costing 65 million US dollars. This, thus, demonstrates that Chavez was creating public relations, but he doesn’t mean his words (Gary & Vanden, 463-466). He is just blackmailing the public for personal acquisition.

Subsequently, his administration programs were run by his military. Upon his election to the office, Chavez initiated programs named “central social fund” and “Bolivar,” which were run by the armed forces intended to provide social services. However, there were various criticisms in the course of executing these programs because no desirable gains reaped from the program. It only became a means for personal enrichment by its directors. As it was reported, of 700 million US dollars allocated to the programs, more than half of this allocation could not be accounted for (Guillermo & Manzetti, 26-38). For example, it was reported that about half a million of the Central Social Fund was granted to an organization ran of their commanders. It can be concluded that the entire Chavez administration was full of corruption, being driven by the self-interest of personal enrichment.