Nicaraguan Public Employees Forced to Declare Their Assets
Government workers now required to submit details of their properties, vehicles, bank accounts, loans, even assets in the name of their spouses or children
HAVANA TIMES – “The only thing I have are debts!,” exclaims Beatriz, 50, when she complains about a new order by the Ortega-Murillo regime that requires public employees in Nicaragua to declare their assets to the Comptroller General of the Republic (CGR). Beatriz has been working for a decade in the Ministry of Health and had “never” been required to disclose her bank accounts, loans or assets, nor those of her two children.
At the beginning of February this year, Beatriz received a memo from Human Resources stating that it was “mandatory” that she fill out and submit on the Comptroler Office’s online system an “initial declaration for the [employee’s] current position.”
Hours after she confirmed receipt of the memo, Beatriz received an email with a “username and password” to access the Comptroller’s Office website and fill out her asset declaration.
The memo states that “to fill out the form online,” the employee would need to have on hand:
- The registration number, folio and volume number of the property titles in the employee’s name.
- Vehicle registration card(s) to enter the data of the employee’s vehicle(s) in the system.
- The numbers of all bank accounts, including the employee’s payroll account.
- The reference numbers of any loans the employee has taken out.
The memo states that employees must also declare the assets and bank accounts of their spouses, as well as “the assets in the name of minor age children.”
Once they fill out the online form, public employees must print out the statement and submit a copy to the Human Resources offices, to be included in their employee file.
Another option for public servants is to go, with all the necessary documentation, in person to the central offices of the Comptroller’s Office in Managua.
Spying on Nicaraguan public employees
CONFIDENCIAL consulted more than a dozen government employees. They indicated that the order is apparently being applied in phases, as some filled out the declaration in 2024, while others received the memo this year, and some have not yet been notified.
“That memo was sent to me on January 25. They have already given me an ultimatum because I have not filled out [the form] yet. My boss called me and ‘asked’ me to do the declaration, that if I don’t, I will be fired,” says Raul, a doctor in a public hospital in Managua.
Another public employee maintains that he is aware of the order to declare all assets, but that he has not yet been officially informed of it. “Colleagues from other ministries have asked me if I’ve gotten [the memo], but so far, nothing. I hope they don’t send it to us,” he adds.
Helena is an official of the Managua court system and received the memo in mid-2024. She assumed that it was directed only to workers in the judicial branch, as part of the purge and restructuring of the Supreme Court that Rosario Murillo –with the approval of her husband, dictator Daniel Ortega– has been implementing since November 2023.
“Here they told us it was to find out if there were people [judicial employees] who received money from the terrorists [the term used to describe members of the opposition]. But, we all know that it’s to keep us under even more control”, comments Helena.
What the Probity Law establishes about declaring properties
Lawyer and former judicial branch official, Yader Morazan, explains that the provision is in accordance with the law, although the context of oppression and harassment in which it is being implemented must be taken into account. “Repression has been transferred to the structures of the State, especially to purge those people who are not directly aligned with Rosario Murillo,” he stresses.
Law 438, or the Public Servants Probity Law, has been in force since 2002. Article 20 establishes that “every public servant of the State must render an account of their assets before assuming office and after handing over their position.”
However, the same article states that this provision particularly concerns high-ranking employees who are “in charge of the administration of public assets, or the receipt, control or supervision of public revenues, whatever their nature or origin.”
“In the judicial branch [this kind of declaration] was made by magistrates, directors and high-ranking officials, but not by lower-level employees. The [issuing of the order] is not aligned with the legitimate purpose of the law, but with the purpose of spying,” said Morazan.
“Not all public employees have a decision-making function nor are they in a position where they might receive bribes. That is why it’s clear this new measure has more of a spying purpose.”
Daniel Ortega’s last declaration of probity
Law 438 lists more than twenty categories of high-ranking officials who must submit their asset declarations, among them the President, ministers, deputies, magistrates, mayors, Foreign Service officials, presidents and directors of collegiate bodies and decentralized entities, as well as rectors, deans and secretaries of universities that receive public funds.
Daniel Ortega made his last declaration of probity in August 2006, when he was nominally a legislator in the National Assembly. According to that declaration, he possessed an estimated patrimony of US $377,000, which included his residence and vehicles.
Ortega did not declare his assets when he returned to the Presidency in January 2007, although according to Law 438 he was required to do so. His wife, Rosario Murillo –who should have declared as the President’s spouse– did not do so, either, nor did she do so when she assumed the vice presidency in 2017 or when she became “co-president.”
No other member of the Ortega-Murillo family –all of whom are linked to the government– has made their declaration, despite their enrichment since Ortega returned to power. A CONFIDENCIAL investigation revealed that as of 2022, the Ortega-Murillo family controlled some 22 private companies, which are run by intermediaries.
Yet another tool of repression
Beatriz, Helena and Raul do not hold management positions. Their positions are mid-level within their respective institutions. According to Morazán, this signals that the new order “is a campaign to instill fear and broaden surveillance.”
According to Morazan, this generalized asset declaration order is yet another tool of “espionage” and “repression,” which includes employees having a “[party] militant file.”
At the end of 2023, the dictatorship required all government workers and party militants to fill out a “single registration form” in which they were asked for personal and contact information, as well as information on deceased family members.
Public employees were also required to detail their social media accounts – Facebook, Twitter (now X), Instagram and TikTok– as well as employment information from the last five jobs, and their academic and training histories.
“This last phase of repression is based on assets. The dictatorship has persecuted the assets of NGOs, political dissidents and opponents. Now, they threaten public employees such that, with any false move, they will go after your assets or those of your family,” says Morazán.
The former judicial official warns that there is no legal way for public workers to “escape” this declaration of assets. However, Helena and Beatriz admit that they looked for options to not declare everything.
“I had a personal account that I closed so that they wouldn’t know if I have money or not. I put my savings somewhere else,” Helena says. Beatriz says that before filling out the form she talked to her two children, now adults, to ask them to leave only the minimum balance in their bank accounts. “At work they already know that I have my own car and house, so I wasn’t going to hide that. But whether I have money or not, that’s not their business. I did put all of my debts in my declaration,” admits the state worker.