While the question of debt dominates the political scene but also in our lives, and chairman of the House Life Konstantopoulou declares that "launched auditing initiatives of the debt", is least useful to remember or learn what is, what she wants and how to do this audit debt. Here's why we reprint a relevant excerpt of the book "Open the books of debt - What is it and how is the audit of public debt "of Éric Toussaint, Maria Lucia Fatorelli, CADTM and Jubilee South, edited, prolegomena and translation of C.. Mitralia, released in 2011 published by Alexandria.
Mitralias George
The audits will give a clearer picture of debt
(...) The first objective of an audit is to clear up the past, to extricate the tangle of debt, thread to thread, to recreate the tangle of events that led to the current impasse. What has happened to the money of the loan such and such, under what conditions concluded in Dinah loan; Amount of interest paid, at what rate, how part of the loan already repaid; How inflated debt although we did not see the color of money; Which way took funds; What served; What part of the embezzled and why;
But: who borrowed in the name of what; Who lent and what was the role of; How was entangled state, what decision, taken with what competence; How private debts were "public"; Who promoted plans monkeys, who pushed, encouraged, who won them; What crimes were committed with this money; Why not recoverable urban, criminal and administrative responsibilities;
The first objective is to be able to start a political approach and a methodology that allows to make leaf and feather external debt, to divide and to reconstruct two parts, which will temporarily call "legitimate" and "illegitimate". Once the distinction is made, the "illegitimate" debt (odious debt -see. Cap. 4–, misuse of funds and all sorts of corruption ...) will undoubtedly become the subject of a normal and with all types of cancellation in the strict sense. The "legitimate" debt, in the unlikely event that it had been repaid, will be the subject of renegotiating with positive terms, within an inclusive policy approach. Why in the name of what we might wonder people be held responsible for all this, in legal and moral terms, and be forced to continue paying;
Then would be made the following questions: what finally remains after all these additions and subtractions, considering the cancellations should reasonably have become; Who is, ultimately, the real debtors and who are the true creditors; Who owes what;
To get the "cancellation" cash
Cancellation, term legal language. Decision by which a judicial or administrative authority cancels a transaction because characterized by invalid or inappropriate (λεξικό Le Petit Robert).
It is precisely this when we are facing in most root acts debt. The challenge is to preach the null and void, either because they cover odious crimes, either because the contracts were signed by fraud or other scams, either because forged titles, not respected promises, no commitments implemented, because they are abusive or usurious rates, etc.. We then, depending on the responsibilities that have been recognized, to recover the money, to reimburse the amounts unduly received as interest or capital, be punished if they are not guilty and compensate the victims of these acts that.
This final bill may possibly only appear certain amounts corresponding to real debts, on sound credits, concluded under conditions that respect the interests of the populations concerned - if not paid and have not been compensated by the above acts. And only this and nothing else should be taken into account in any decision to deduct debt.
Be presented as a "gift" abandonment debts de facto is fraudulent, be given to the term "cancellation" common sense shutdown or elimination of debt, constitutes a fraud can not have another goal than to cover abuses with a veil pallefko.
Audits, mobilization tools and hopes bodies
Audits therefore consist first of all to carry out a detailed examination of the past. But, and perhaps mainly, a means of mobilizing citizens allowing to ground yourself in the present and to deny the inevitability of debt for the future, to prevent it indefinitely perpetuate the.
The audit through which we try to find the truth about the debt is elementary democratic right, the right to ask account. It is a powerful way of allowing citizens to regain some influence on the functioning of the state. It is also a school where we can understand the mechanisms that control the international relations and global economy.
It is finally the opportunity to put in place monitoring tools at every level -koinovouleftiko, Judicial, government, internationally and that the citizen as not to resume new procedures fraudulent indebted people behind their backs.
Cross and international audits, an opportunity to strengthen solidarity and North-South alliances
The G8, IMF, the World Bank, the Paris Club and London is talking with large advertising Noise 'disable' certain sections of debt of the poorest and most indebted countries. However, currently they are only promises: the amounts given are very small and even accompanied by many conditions. We could consider all these first very small victory achieved by the innumerable campaigns conducted almost everywhere in the world for the cancellation of Third World debt.
But this is a real victory; Unless you highlight the truth about debt, this supposed generosity will be nothing but a cloud of smoke to cover the responsibilities and could be turned against the people of both the South and the North:
• against the peoples of the South, as these supposedly bounties will be combined with new negative terms, thus opening the way to new debts in the name of 'development'.
• against the peoples of the North, suffering on their part a logic similar to that of structural adjustment. Additional, repayment few honest creditors, who supposedly had harmed, result loaded these "compensation" to the taxpayers of the North, further expanding domestic debt of their countries. Already the G8 leaders, led Great Britain, insist that no abolition of debts held by the IMF or the World Bank should not harm the minimum financial capabilities of these institutions. Who will pay the sad after the peoples of the South;
The majority of people, businessmen, managers banks, institutions, Governments, industrial trusts that were directly or indirectly involved in debt creation process has certainly not have the slightest inclination to unravel the events. Unlike, both citizens of the South and those of the North have every interest to do everything with the maximum transparency. This is because compromising the quality of solidarity relations between the, which can not be founded only on a clear understanding of realities that have experienced each other and not on a hypocritical charity mixed with pangs of conscience ...
Finally, the four vital strategic objectives of the audit and the scope of this manual is:
• Put the cancellation in the constellation of transparency and fairness: the history of many countries shows that, in cases of genocide or crimes against humanity, necessary truth to restore those responsible for crimes in a national reconciliation process. So, restoring the history of the debt could help to raise the claim of debt cancellation and to prosecute those responsible for the illegitimate part of.
• Develop a huge folk enlightenment movement and action and to unlock the full educational potential of the debt in order to halt the renewal nightmare vicious cycle.
• To come closer to the people through commonalities linking their particular stories. Might rupture with all logic type "donor / recipient","Charity / poverty","Developed / underdeveloped", to strongly dominate the logic of solidarity and transparency, human rights and community social interests.
• Do not become the occasion of the debt relief companies for racist hate campaign in the north against the "eternal assisted peoples of the South ', aiming to lose again the last control theirs history for the benefit of local oligarchies ...
The audit of the debt is not something new, the opposite: the realization is promoted by many movements dealing with debt long. So, one of the most representative movements, international movement Jubilee South, encourages and supports for years all initiatives related to the audit of debt. The second general assembly of, held in Havana on 28 September 2005, proclaimed:
"We will also continue to strongly condemn the involvement of South governments in perpetuating the debt problem, risking, even selling off the assets of our peoples. We pledge to work with enthusiasm to change the policies of the governments of the South, that all debts should denounce required by our countries. Then we consider the implementation of audits in debt decisive step ".
Actually, whether the termination of the debt is a unilateral action, decided by a government and forming part of a firm will protest and change, to perform an audit prepares for a showdown and is undoubtedly one of the most effective tools.
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The Éric Toussaint, President of the Belgian section of the Committee for cancellation of Third World debt (CADTM) and member of the audit committee of the public debt of Ecuador, explains Stamatis STEFANAKI and Moses lychees, illegal structure of Greek debt and urged the government to immediately establish an audit committee of debt and delete, as entitled, most as illegal and onerous. The conference heard many interesting facts about the Greek debt and similar cases in other countries where Toussaint himself involved but also for the contacts during his stay in Greece with government members. Source
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Read also:
– Éric Toussaint: Open the books of debt!
– Éric Toussaint: The Greece symbol illegal debt!
