management of public funds.” In this sense, the representatives questioned that “it was not of the same interest to determine the guilt of the defendant as it was to demonstrate the occurrence of the event.” Thus, they concluded that “the presumption of innocence was not guaranteed” and that “upon initiating the proceeding and even before the accused was given notice of [the] initiation of a proceeding against him, he had been charged for the same unproven acts and [that] he had not been able to contest them, before the civil and criminal courts.” 125. In this regard, the State referred to the decision by the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Tribunal of Justice, in judgments of August 6 and 12, 2008, regarding the constitutionality of Article 105 of the LOCGRSNCF. In its final written arguments, in regard to the appeals filed for the actions of the Municipality of Chacao, the State argued that Mr. López Mendoza “claim[ed] in an unfounded manner that the judgment [at issue], took on a regressive stance regarding the right to presumption of innocence upon validating the argument that the alleged administrative responsibility under the LOCGRSNCF and in particular, that relating to the recipient change of the budgetary appropriations, are cases of objective administrative responsibility in which it is not necessary to assess the conduct of the accused.” Thus, the State argued the “objective character of the administrative offenses" and noted that the representatives contradict themselves upon “maintaining [...] on the one hand, that the aforementioned responsibility is subjective in nature and, on the other hand, that the same assumption of responsibility is by nature objective.” 1.2.2. Considerations of the Court 126. The Court notes that the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Tribunal of Justice has ruled on the presumption of innocence in regard to the application of Article 105 of the LOCGRSNCF as follows: Its essential content is that throughout the administrative sanctioning or disciplinary proceeding, there should be evidentiary activity designed to establish the guilt of the official, without disclosing any opinion as to the merits of the matter. It is a right that directly involves how the evidentiary phase of the sanctioning proceeding is developed. Thus, the presumption of innocence requires that the act that declares administrative responsibility be the only determination of the culpability of the official under investigation. 225 127. Subsequently, the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Tribunal stated that: "... the sanctions contained in Article 105 [...] must be issued after the substantiation of the respective administrative proceeding in which the person under investigation may raise all the arguments and evidence deemed relevant to his or her defense and where, all procedural safeguards are guaranteed, among which is the presumption of innocence, so that from its inception until right before the issuance of administrative responsibility the individual under investigation is presumed innocent and this is the treatment that must be made. However, once the substantiation of the proceedings and instruction in the case has been completed and the administrative responsibility for the commission of an unlawful administrative act has been determined, the presumption of innocence of the investigation is swapped, applying the punitive legal consequences provided for in said Article 105 [...] without this implying a violation of the constitutional guarantee of presumption of innocence, as it has already been asserted in the procedure-guarantee.” 226 225 Judgment No. 1.266 of August 6, 2008, issued by the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Tribunal of Justice, supra note 31, folio 633. 226 Judgment N° 1.270 of August 12, 2008, of the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Tribunal of Justice supra note 188, folio 1421. 53