The Economy Committee of the Legislative Assembly has begun to study a bill promoted by the opposition that aims for companies and corporations with state ownership to be audited and monitored every year by the Court of Accounts (CCR, in Spanish). These entities, currently operating with limited public oversight, will also have to comply with the Public Procurement and Contracting Law when purchasing goods and services.

The need to provide more transparency to state-owned companies or those with participation of public funds came to the fore in October, following the launch of a new public media outlet that lies outside the CCR’s scope for control and supervision. 

The unveiling of Newspaper El Salvador at the time drew criticism from civil society and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. In the words of Carlos Palomo, a member of the Citizen Observatory to the Court of Accounts, the nature of state-owned companies makes them a “perfect option to move money about without controls,” since, currently, neither the Government Ethics Court nor the Court of Accounts are authorized to supervise the way in which resources are administered within them.