Reforms in the Vatican after the mysterious purchase of a luxury building in London

he dad Francisco adjusted the staff structure that will have skills to decide on future investments and purchases in the Vatican to avoid the maneuvers of financial intermediaries which could lead to more scandals such as the opaque purchase of a luxury building in London, which would have caused a hole in the Vatican’s accounts between 73 and 166 million euros.

The pontiff approved a Motu Proprio which grants legal status to its ordinances to eliminate the own funds of the Vatican Secretary of State which, as of February 4, will be managed by the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See (APSA) and to reduce the number of people with decision-making capacity in financial matters.

As the Vatican press office reports, “the decision comes before January 1 to be implemented in the 2021 budgets“This new law will reduce the number of economic managers and will concentrate the administration, management and economic and financial decisions in the Dicasteries which meet this objective,” the Vatican said in a statement.

This is a new step in the economic reform undertaken by Benedict XVI with the creation of the AIF (Financial Information Authority) to monitor suspicious transactions on Vatican bank accounts. Francis thus completes a process of unifying the Vatican’s purchases and investments into a single entity to improve the organization of the Roman Curia.

The Motu Proprio too establishes “greater control” and “greater visibility” – according to the Vatican – of the Obolus of Saint Peter, the fund which collects the donations of the faithful for the works of charity of the Pope. “In addition to strengthening specific controls in certain entities linked to the Holy See which manage accounts and funds from donations,” the statement said.

Pope Francis promises no Vatican employees will be fired

The funds of the Secretary of State have played a role in the past in certain controversies that have cast doubt on their vigilance and transparency, such as the case which ended with the forced resignation of the former prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of the saints, Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu. . According to local media reports, Becciu, who was also forced to give up his inherent rights in the cardinal, is under investigation by the Court of the Holy See for allegedly diverting some of these economic reserves from the secretary of State between 2011 and 2018, when he was a surrogate and could manage his portfolio without being accountable to anyone.

To cope with these financial scandals, the Pope also approved a new transparency law to regulate public procurement in the Vatican.

The new regulations confirm the principles of the United Nations Convention against Corruption of 2003 and thus prevent companies found guilty of fraud or corruption from participating in public tenders, those which have their head office in tax havens or which escape tax, and also those who do not respect the environment.

EA / FEL