Caracas (OrinocoTribune.com)—On Friday, Venezuelan Acting President Delcy Rodríguez said that 99% of the spending recorded by Venezuela’s sovereign funds from January through November went to public-sector salaries and pensions. She released the figures alongside a US State Department report on Venezuelan resource revenues held in a US-controlled custody account.
Rodríguez reported that US $14.71 billion of the $14.86 billion in recorded outflows went to salaries and pensions, while US $150.5 million went to government operating expenses. The portal, Transparencia Soberana, lists US $15.603 billion in total income and the same spending figures. It covers the Social Protection Fund and the National Infrastructure Fund, not all Venezuelan government or national income.
The announcement has already been used by unconditional propagandists for Acting President Delcy Rodríguez to argue that Venezuela’s public sector is too large and should be cut back through IMF-style austerity and privatization. That prescription runs counter to President Hugo Chávez’s vision of a strong state serving popular needs and national sovereignty.
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How the figures relate
The reports cover different stages of a connected flow of funds. Transparencia Soberana records income and spending assigned to the two Venezuelan funds. The US State Department report tracks resource-sale proceeds held first through the Qatar fiduciary arrangement and later in the US Treasury custody account, including the amounts disbursed from that account. Because the Venezuelan funds were established to direct oil income toward social programs and infrastructure, the two datasets are credibly related. However, public records do not reconcile transfers between them dollar for dollar.
The US report tracks activity in the custody account; it does not provide a complete, line-by-line accounting of Venezuelan government spending after money is disbursed into Venezuelan channels. The Venezuelan portal supplies broader spending categories for the two funds, although it does not publish transaction-level supporting documents.
The portal’s current “Independent Verification” notice says BDO Venezuela independently reviews the handling of assets linked to the BCV’s international operations. It states that the review includes earthquake emergency funds, foreign-exchange operations with bank counterparties, and accounts associated with the international reserves managed.
The US State Department report separately lists a US $155,000 payment to BDO for “limited assurance” work covering May and June. The portal does not publish BDO’s report or findings, so the public record does not show how the firm reconciled the portal’s totals with the US account’s disbursements.
The State Department report, prepared by KPMG and dated October 29, covers January 3 through September 30. It records US $12.264 billion deposited into the Venezuela Custody Account, US $12.108 billion disbursed, US $12.5 million in reinvestment interest, and a remaining balance of US $168.6 million.
The report tracks payments through foreign-exchange interventions and vendor payments. It lists US $133.1 million in direct vendor payments. Among recipients tracked through foreign-exchange interventions, 77% were legal entities and 23% were individuals. These figures cover a different period and use a different classification from Transparencia Soberana’s January–November totals.
The US report says the funds remain sovereign assets of Venezuela but also describes US Treasury custody and the US secretary of state’s authority over their disbursement. It acknowledges that not all the monitoring processes and safeguards described in the report were in place from the beginning; they were added and revised over time.
Transparency after months without records
For months, Transparencia Soberana showed no recorded movement beyond the initial US $300 million reported in February. Its current page, marked as updated on November 12, now displays entries for January through November, including US $15.603 billion in income and US $14.860 billion in outflows. The new entries provide a retrospective record of movements that the portal had not reported for months.
US congressional scrutiny and the report’s timing
The report comes amid demands in the US Congress for a full accounting of Venezuelan oil revenues held by the Trump administration. In September, Democrats on the House Foreign Affairs Committee sought to subpoena records. They later criticized the State Department’s partial production and requested a complete accounting.
Democrats, currently in the minority, won control of both chambers in the November midterms and are due to take over when the new Congress convenes on January 3, 2027.
Some analysts interpret the report’s release as a response to the tougher congressional oversight expected from the incoming majority. That scrutiny is expected to examine the Trump administration’s actions in Venezuela since January 3, including the US military operation that abducted President Nicolás Maduro and the subsequent sui generis relationship between Washington and Caracas.
The incoming majority is expected to pursue investigations. The prospect of impeachment has also gained visibility, although Democrats remain divided over impeaching President Donald Trump, as mainstream media reported.
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The report is dated October 29, before the results of the US midterm were known, but was released on November 12, after the election. The distinction matters: analysts’ interpretation concerns the timing of its release, not its preparation. The report provides a partial accounting of funds handled through US custody; it does not resolve broader questions about Washington’s control over Venezuelan resource revenues or the terms governing the arrangement.
Special for Orinoco Tribune by staff
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