Chilean parliament vows to eliminate corruption via congressional audit

Chile's President Michelle Bachelet sits next to Senate President Patricio Walker (L), and Chamber of Deputies President Marco Antonio Nunez, at the annual address of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate inside the congress building in Valparaiso, July 21, 2015. [Photo/Agencies]

SANTIAGO -- In the presence of Chile's President Michelle Bachelet and the presidents of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate, Chile announced Tuesday the first ever audit of Congress in its 204-year history.

The presidents of the two chambers, Marco Antonio Nunez (Party for Democracy) and Patricio Walker (Christian Democratic Party), ordered senators and representatives alike "to never again be involved in bad practices" that have been brought to the public in recent months.

The political leaders were referring to the illegal or irregular practices used in electoral campaigns in 2013 both by the center-left New Majority coalition, which currently makes up the government, and its right-wing opponent, the Alliance for Chile.

Both coalitions were put together by using money from large companies, which has caused a crisis of trust among the Chilean people in the political establishment.

Business group PENTA and chemical company Soquimich were involved in the scandal as they both used false documents to ensure that the Internal Revenue Service would return the payments to the companies.

The scandal was eventually discovered after a PENTA executive reported the crime.

Fishing company CorPesca is also being investigated for delivering money in an irregular way to senators and representatives.