Overview
- The bicameral supervisory commission, which closed the audit Monday, accepted director Gabriel Esterelles' resignation and installed María Eugenia David Du Mutel de Pierrepont as interim head of the Congressional Budget Office (OPC).
- Auditors documented wide governance failures including a self‑created reserve fund mixed with ordinary accounts that paid for office renovations and a 2024 official vehicle, irregular signing authorities on transfers, repeated use of service contracts instead of public contests, weak procurement practices, and a flawed 2023 analyst selection process.
- The report says the OPC obtained its own administrative‑financial service (SAF 369) around 2021 and thereafter received direct transfers from the Ministry of Economy, a shift that auditors say exposed the office to executive leverage and prompted the commission to vote to eliminate the SAF and return administrative dependence to a chamber.
- The changes were advanced in closed‑door sessions led by La Libertad Avanza and backed by some PRO members, prompting opposition leaders such as Germán Martínez and Maximiliano Ferraro to accuse the majority of politicizing the OPC and to threaten legal challenges; key opposition commissioners boycotted Monday's meeting.
- Timing raises practical risks for the 2027 Budget debate because the OPC did not publish its May execution report during the review, the commission now requires any OPC work to match a commission‑approved plan, and the alterations could reduce or delay the independent fiscal analysis lawmakers and markets rely on.