BANDESAL, the Development Bank of El Salvador, refused to give anti-corruption authorities the Bitcoin records of purchases and sales that the government requested for the second time. The information was divulged in a tweet by ALAC, the anti-corruption watchdog.
ALAC published on Twitter:
La reserva limita la posibilidad de que ciudadanos accedan y reciban información de las operaciones realizadas con fondos públicos por BANDESAL.
— ALAC El Salvador (@ALAC_SV) October 31, 2022
El Salvador Rejects Publicizing Bitcoin Records
An anti-corruption outfit on Sunday uncovered that BANDSAL, El Salvador’s development bank, had withheld details on the controversial Bitcoin transactions made by the government. El Salvador’s Anti-Corruption Legal Advisory Center (ALAC) offers legal assistance to citizens who wish to make corruption allegations.
BANDESAL, a bank in El Salvador, posted a late Sunday tweet stating that the government of El Salvador had prohibited it from providing any transaction records made by the government for confidentiality.
El Salvador became the first country to accept Bitcoin as a legal tender. It delegated BANDESAL to manage funds for Bitcoin and other crypto projects. El Salvador’s Congress authorised BANDESAL to set up a $150 million trust fund called FIDEBITCOIN to make trading digital money for US dollars easier before the country made digital currency legal tender in September 2021.
The anti-corruption commission in El Salvador tweeted this in English, which means:
BANDESAL refused for the second time last September to provide information on the purchase and sale of Bitcoin by the Salvadoran government, alleging reserve and contravening the principle of maximum publicity and proportionality.
BANDESAL Failed to Provide the Invoice Records
BANDESAL refused to provide information about FIDEBITCOIN, a Bitcoin trust based in El Salvador, citing protecting national interests. The cryptocurrency’s current value is $45 million, down from $103.9 million according to statistics.
ALAC El Salvador argued that the government was engaging in enormous risky Bitcoin investments using taxpayer money.
Despite the anti-corruption commission’s difficulties and the government’s confusion, it is still unsure whether the government will invest in Bitcoin. Despite the government’s decision to implement a law that would make Bitcoin a legal tender, the government has not backed down since July 2022. At that time, the President of a Central American country said that his government had acquired 80 more bitcoins at $19,000 per coin, a statement that indicates the government is still considering BTC a legal tender.
El Salvador Attempts to Get People to Use Cryptocurrencies More Often
Due to the fact that Bitcoin was now legally used as a digital currency to buy goods and services in El Salvador, mass adoption was facilitated. Just recently, El Salvador established a state-sponsored cryptocurrency wallet with Bitcoin valued at $30 that citizens could spend.
El Salvador’s government also supported Bitcoin ATMs as part of its efforts to boost mass Bitcoin adoption. The government, in addition, sponsored Bitcoin ATMs that were scattered around the country. El Salvador rose to the third position by putting up 205 ATMs to serve the nation’s booming Bitcoin economy. Spain, on the other hand, recorded 215 active installed ATMs, which accounted for 14.65% of the European installations.
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