There was also an enormous discrepancy between what the candidates said they spent and the traceable spending evidently invested in media campaigns. In the preliminary report supplied by his financial managers, Kirchner declared he had spent only US $1 in the 10 days before the election and that his sole donors were the two men responsible for his campaign, who allegedly contributed US $89 each. The final report included contributions in kind – mostly advertising – worth just over US $527,000, which was supposedly spent after the election. The auditors’ report tells a different story, concluding that more than US $1.2 million in expenditure was left out of Kirchner’s final report. Poder Ciudadano has estimated that Kirchner’s television campaign cost at least US $2.6 million. Menem’s alliance disclosed income and expenditure of slightly over US $400,000, of
which US $329,000 was spent on printing ballot papers.6 Menem spent nothing on advertising, by official accounts, but media and NGO enquiries revealed that as much as US $5 million was allocated to this purpose. Two foundations from Salta7 allegedly made a combined donation of US $714,000 to the Menem campaign, although this was not declared to the electoral authority. In conclusion, parties now have to provide detailed reports on their financing, which is an improvement, but these reports too often remain in the realm of fiction. To close the gap, the supervisory body responsible for enforcing the law needs to be strengthened. One concrete recommendation is that the enforcement body be given the resources necessary to carry out a nationwide media audit, as the Mexican Federal Electoral Institute does.
Laura Alonso, Pilar Arcidiácono, María Julia Pérez Tort and Pablo Secchi (Poder Ciudadano, Argentina) Further reading The International Budget Project, Latin-American Index of Budgetary Transparency: The Experience of 10 Countries, 2003 (Mexico, 2003) Poder Ciudadano Foundation, ‘Banco de datos de Políticos Argentinos’ (Data bank on Argentine Politicians), www.poderciudadano.org/elecciones2003/index.asp Poder Ciudadano Foundation, Manual para el monitoreo del Consejo de la Magistratura (Manual on the monitoring of the Judicial Council) (Buenos Aires: Manchita, 2003) and Manual de monitoreo de medios en períodos electorales (Manual on monitoring the media in election campaigns) (La Crujia: Buenos Aires, forthcoming) Organization of American States, ‘Report of the Experts Committee on the Mechanism for Monitoring Implementation of the Inter-American Convention against Corruption’, Washington, DC, 2003, www.oas.org/juridico/english/mec_rep_arg.pdf Daniel Santoro, Venta de armas – Hombres de Menem (Arms Sales – Menem’s Men), (Buenos Aires: Planeta, 2003) Fundación Poder Ciudadano (TI Argentina): www.poderciudadano.org Notes 1. At a sub-national level, the autonomous government of Buenos Aires and the province of Santa Fe introduced in September 2003 and January 2004, respectively, new criteria for the selection of magistrates, public prosecutors and other legal appointees, making them subject to the approval of the local legislatures. 2. In its wording the decree acknowledges the input of the Political Reform Board and the NGOs Argentine Dialogue and the Social Forum for Transparency.
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