The National Assembly approved an agreement that recognizes the debts sustained with law firms that defend the assets of Venezuelans

The Delegate Commission of the National Assembly in ordinary session online, approved this Tuesday an Agreement whereby the debts sustained with the law firms that have represented the Venezuelan State and its decentralized entities in foreign courts and tribunals are recognized in lawsuits concerning the defense, protection or recovery of assets of the Venezuelan people, up to the amount of eighteen million seven hundred forty-nine thousand six hundred eighty-one dollars and forty-nine cents (US $ 18,749,681.49) and that were contracted during the years 2019 -2020.

The aforementioned agreement was presented by the president of the Permanent Commission of Finance and Economic Development, deputy for Mérida State, Carlos Paparoni. It establishes to order the National Judicial Defense Council and demand that the Special Prosecutor’s Office of the Republic correct the procedural errors in carrying out the contracting and authorization procedure in accordance with the provisions of the laws of the Republic and establishing the amounts that thereof must attached to the budget approved by the National Assembly.
Additionally, to ensure that any requirement for additional resources must be based on an extension of the contract also duly authorized by the National Council for Judicial Defense and framed in the general strategy for the defense of State assets abroad.

At the same time, it requests the presentation by the Special Prosecutor’s Office of the Republic, of a report on the possibilities of the Republic and other entities of the State to obtain or not favorable rulings in litigations filed in foreign courts.

Said report must be presented to the Board of Directors of the National Assembly and must contain the general strategic guidelines of the judicial and extrajudicial defense of the rights and interests of the Venezuelan State abroad, thus ensuring that the National Assembly and the National Judicial Defense Council know the strategic and economic rationality of each project for the contracting of judicial and extrajudicial professional services abroad.

The Agreement requests from the Office of the Special Prosecutor of the Republic a Report with the budget of expenses, broken down on a case-by-case basis and indicating the total for the year 2021 and at the same time calls for the appointment of a special Commission to review together with the National Council for Judicial Defense , the Office of the Special Prosecutor of the Republic and the ad-hoc boards involved in the current situation of every litigation, to develop guidelines for a process to correct the failures that occurred in the hiring process and the evaluation of a strategy that responds to the best interests of the Republic.

It should be noted that Deputy Paparoni, prior to the approval of the aforementioned Agreement, presented before the Delegate Commission of the National Assembly, the report in relation to the debts contracted for the purpose of continuing with the defense and judicial and extrajudicial interests of the Republic overseas, which was approved.