The Fiscal Affairs Commission resolved a final controversy over how to include resources in the budget to unanimously rule on credit from the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI) for works at imminent risk.
The Government’s attempt to include the resources through an executive decree instead of an extraordinary budget was aborted, after several consultations agreed that the authorities’ fear that a new legislative authorization would be required for each disbursement was unfounded.
In this way, the way was paved to unanimously approve project 23,635, the CABEI credit for $700 million, which will be allocated to the reconstruction of 503 works at imminent risk in 65 cantons.
In thanking the ruling, representative Pilar Cisneros, of the Social Democratic Progress Party (PSD), highlighted that these resources will allow urgent works to be carried out in the communities: 135 bridges, 133 educational centers, roads, railways and housing projects, works that have been relegated during emergency care.
It was a journey marked by intense negotiations, which at the beginning were pointed out by the Government as attempts to delay urgent projects. However, in the vote on the opinion, the opposition deputies highlighted that the process allowed the proposal to be improved.
Jonathan Acuña, from the Frente Amplio (FA), recalled that his observations were related to improving controls and guaranteeing the execution of these works, which must be included through an extraordinary budget to maintain the deputies’ oversight of external credits.
For her part, the president of the commission, representative Paulina Ramírez of the National Liberation Party (PLN), highlighted that the process allowed for improvements in controls, with aspects such as the inclusion in the text of the list of projects, as well as the investment required in the MIDEPLAN project bank.
Ramírez indicated that a new article was also incorporated for the Audit of the National Emergency Commission (CNE) to submit semiannual reports that evaluate aspects such as planning, performance of the implementation firms, execution of resources, physical and financial progress of the Projects. “One issue remains pending, clarifying administrative contracting, public contracting and differentiating what should be an imminent risk with an emergency decree,” he said.
For his part, José Pablo Jiménez, from Nueva República (NR), claimed that thanks to the actions of the commission’s deputies, CABEI was able to reduce interest rates, which were considered excessive at the beginning, to achieve a savings of around $60 million for the country.
Eliécer Feinzaig, of the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP), also spoke along these lines, recalling that despite initial criticism, the project was improved. However, he admitted that despite voting in favor, he still has misgivings about the structure of the loan. “There are five executing units, it seems complicated to us. I hope it doesn’t happen to us like with the Limón Ciudad Puerto project, which had several executing units and that made progress difficult, after 5.6 years of execution there was not even 10% progress,” he commented.
The opinion must go to the Plenary for final discussion, and if it is endorsed, an extraordinary budget will be required to transfer the resources to the CNE, as explained by Ramírez.
2024-01-09 23:33:42
#Treasury #Commission #ruled #CABEI #credit #works #imminent #risk #Semanario #Universidad
