The OAS authorizes the investigation of Almagro for violating “rules and regulations”

The Permanent Council of the Organization of American States (OAS) took a step forward this Friday to prosecute an independent investigation into allegations of conduct that “constitute a violation by the secretary general” of the organization, Luis Almagro, of the “norms and regulations” of the body based in Washington DC.

The Permanent Council decided, with 30 votes in favor of opening an investigation, two abstentions and one absence, “to authorize an external firm to investigate the allegations against the Secretary General.”

Almagro is accused of maintaining a sentimental relationship with his assistant and “main adviser”, which would have resulted in a violation of the agency’s rules. The case reached the office of the OAS Inspector General at the beginning of June.

The OAS Secretary General acknowledged at the end of the hearing – after the vote – that he had a relationship with his assistant for three years, “perhaps the best of his life,” he said.

“At the time it seemed to me that it was not atypical, some of you or all of you knew the relationship, I want to confirm and reconfirm that this relationship existed, I went to diplomatic missions accompanied by her”, and she was my partner (couple) on a personal level for three years,” Almagro said.

In search of “legal truth”

The delegations arrived at the special session this Friday afternoon with the draft already refined, after drafting and discussing the terms, to “avoid publicly exposing” the denounced situation, according to a representative who attended the meeting on Monday and asked the voice of america his anonymity, for not being authorized to give statements.

In the opening considerations of the point during the meeting of the Permanent Council, the Uruguayan ambassador, Washington Abdala, said that the case “is not a minor thing” for which he urged that the independent investigation commissioned offer a “legal truth.”

The resolution reads that it “resolves, to authorize the initiation of an investigation by an external firm, in accordance with the terms of reference attached hereto, to determine whether the allegations made against the Secretary General by the Associated Press journalist and in an email from the OAS (internal) dated June 2, 2022. (attached) have no merit, and constitute a violation by the Secretary General of the rules and regulations of the OAS”.

However, the diplomatic representative qualified the VOA that Almagro’s legal team is trying to determine that “he was not his partner’s direct supervisor” and that therefore there was no violation of the regulations.

But he recalled that while Almagro maintained his relationship and traveled on missions abroad with his “senior assistant and adviser”, he maintained the subsidy for his then wife, as part of the benefits of the position of secretary general, for which he said that the investigation ” should push for an ethical debate on the matter”.

Find a firm to investigate the case

Initial support from countries that opposed pursuing an investigation was reduced, only Belize and Haiti abstained from voting in favor of the investigation.

In recent days the United States Department of State, which finances most of the OAS operations, and which this year has disbursed close to half of the organization’s 100 million dollar budget, has supported research and this afternoon gave the accurate vote “in favor.”

“We take these allegations seriously (…) must be investigated fairly and impartially by an appropriate external investigative entity,” State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters in recent days.

In the coming days, the Inspector General must notify the OAS Permanent Council of which independent firm is awarded the investigation, while presenting the budget to carry it out.

This year, a similar case led the board of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) to order an independent investigation -carried out by the firm Davis Polk & Wardwell- whose conclusions led to the dismissal of the former president of the financial institutionMauricio Claver-Carone.

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