How much does the state cost to the Communist Party of Cuba?

Few people know for sure how much it costs the Cuban State to keep the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC), with its cohort of public servants and professional leaders, its facilities and resources of all kinds.

Maybe this question is not even asked by the generations of Cubans born during the The communist regime came to power 60 years ago.

Unlike in other countries where state budget expenditures are detailed and approve in their respective legislative bodiesthe leaders of the Cuban communist regime keep secret the accounts of the ruling party, which is also the only one authorized by the Constitution in force.

There is no mechanism in Cuba that explains the expenses of the CCP, nor the entity to which he should be held responsible. The economic transparency of "Superior ruling force of society and the state" he is remarkable for his absence.

Alcibiades Hidalgo, former member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, came to exile from France. Miami on board a rustic boat in 2002, he explained to Radio Televisión Martí that "theoretically" the communist party it is funded by the fees that its members have to pay, which can go up to 10% the salary and sale of all newspapers and magazines in the country he controls.

"This is absolutely wrong. The Party is secretly feeding on the state coffers, "said Hidalgo, who was also head of Raúl Castro's office and Cuba's ambbadador to the United Nations.

The CCP's finances are controlled by the central committee's administration department, which manages its bank account, the revenues and payments of all its officials and professional leaders, "which represents thousands of dollars," said Hidalgo.

"The average salary that a professional party leader can earn is equivalent to or greater than that of a doctor", he said.

"This salary is only one part of other sinecures, such as exclusive vacation spots, preferential medical treatment, transportation, etc.," he added.

Hidalgo, who is the government official and the highest leader of the CCP who exiled to the United States, added a fact which, as he said, has not yet been mentioned: "There is a pension system for paintings [dirigentes] select parties that receive up to 100% of the wages earned at retirement, in flagrant violation of labor law"

Last December, the National Assembly of People's Power (ANPP) approved the state budget for 2019 worth $ 65,957 million in national currency, of which 38,711 million are earmarked social expenditure.

In this section, a game draws attention, under the enigmatic name of "Rest", worth $ 3,282 million.

The volume of this "rest" equates to approximately 30% of education, public health and social badistance expenditures – respectively – and covers 40% of the expenditure on education. And public administration and defense, and nearly twice as high. it goes to culture and sports.

Within this generous and indecipherable "rest" could be the money that is spent to keep the CCP professional officials in their "leading role in Cuban society," as proclaimed by the Constitution.

For independent journalist Dimas Castellanos, who specializes in economic and political affairs and is based in Havana, the situation would not be solved if the Cuban political system was not overthrown.

"This is one of the great problems of the existence of a single party and a party-driven constitution, which will not really undergo any change until the country has experienced a process of structural change and change. democratization, which of course includes the party, recognize the plurality of political parties, political tendencies and then it will require a law of parties that controls all this, "Castellanos said.

Three entities are responsible for monitoring, supervising and proposing the country's financial policy, but none of them indicate the spending of the single party that governs the nation's projects.

The Comptroller General of the Republic hasensure the proper and transparent administration of public goods, prevent and combat corruption"but it does not contain any link in your digital site that allows us to inform people who are audited by the CCP.

The controller does not specify any action or investigation of the party or Cuban auditing standards, rules of ethics and conduct or its institutional policy.

On March 21, the agency issued a statement regarding the Office of the Provincial Comptroller at Guantánamo in 2018. The comparison report, which reviewed the entity, was overseen by Deputy Comptroller General, Reynol Pérez Fonticoba , and nothing more and nothing less than by Leuris Bueno. Daudinot, member of the CCP municipal bureau, among other officials.

Directly, the Ministry of Finance and Prices (MFP) offers "financial, fiscal, fiscal, accounting, treasury, equity, price and public credit policies" to the central government, based of the mission that protects it.

The organizational chart of the MFP includes, among others, the Directorate General of Fiscal Policy, whose functions are focused on accounting policy and state badets, without specifying that they account for what the PAC has spent and if their many badets are audited here.

In the institutional care section, the MFP "badists" in agribusiness, tourism, trade, services, as well as in defense, but … they also do not refer to their "attentions" "to the Communist Party.

Finally, in the field of institutions which have no control over the "organized avant-garde" of the Cuban Revolution, the National Office of Statistics and Information (ONEI) is also no exception.

ONEI published its Cuban Statistical Yearbook 2016 the following year.

In Table 7.3, referring to "Employees by clbad of economic activity", and among the 18 registered professions – ranging from agriculture to construction, to the hotel or to the hotel. Public Administration and Defense – Professional members of the Communist Party do not appear registered in a visible among the 4 million 969,000 state employees.

In Table 7.4, concerning the "average monthly salary – set at $ 584.00", the same occupations are therefore counted, without these indexes providing information on the salaries of the administrators, including the first secretaries of the PCC at the municipal level. to the Central Committee.

Two questions, among others, remain unanswered in this area. Will the budgeted units pay the salaries of professional members of the Communist Party? and do these inclusions affect the average monthly salary index reported by the ONEI?

In the search for CCP funding sources, very little or nothing helps to know what is its heritage, even if it is useful to know the properties of the "superior ruling force of society and the state. ".

The CPC Municipal Committee, made up of twelve professionals, is housed in a head office located in Cuba. It includes a fleet of vehicles with their respective repair and maintenance shops, among other services. comfort

Hidalgo explained that the structure of the PCC is based on a similar order, from the municipal to the national level, with professional leaders who hold positions in various departments that oversee and monitor the country's economic and social activities.

"In the municipal committee, there is even one or more professional leaders to oversee the work of party nuclei at the local level," he said.

Food, kitchen-dining room, a guest house; indiscriminately a farm of self-consumption and electricity and fuel bills are part of the expenses that could be added to the maintenance of a municipal committee of the CCP

The pattern is repeated in each of the 15 provinces of the country. The PCC Provincial Committee has a larger seat than its municipal counterpart, a training-of-trainers school, a transportation base (with its repair shop) and a graphic propaganda unit, in addition to an undetermined number of professional leaders.

According to Hidalgo, the headquarters of the CPC Central Committee, housed in a wing of the Revolution Palace in Havana, occupies four floors filled with offices, from where officials control the administrative and organizational activities of the institution. .

"There they worked, easily, about a thousand people, at the time when I was also a civil servant"he said.

The lack of informative and financial transparency of the costs that the Cuban Communist Party represents for the State does not exclude the country's highest political organ..

A range of alleged non-governmental organizations (NGOs), which even have international representation, are also covered by the secrecy surrounding the CCP. Each of them deserves a special report to continue to shed light on the expenses that Cubans hide from the communist regime.

With information from Martí News