The Probity Prosecutor’s Office confirmed this Friday that a file has been open against the mayor of San José, Diego Miranda, for a few weeks over the issue of parking meters.
The entity detailed that the file, in the investigation phase, is 24-000333-1218-PE and started on September 11.
They add that the “apparent crime of influence against the Public Treasury.”
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At night, the City Council of the Capital issued a statement in which they responded that what happened was that “the parking meter service stopped operating on July 23, 2024, as a result of the contract expiring, which for 12 years, the Municipality maintained with Setex Aparki.”
They add that a new contract is now advancing, the completion of which is in the process.
“There was never a suspension of collection due to a guideline. It is a consequence of an active process that is still being finalized,” they explain. According to their version, there is already a firm award and only document verification steps are completed before the final signature.
The parking meter system in San José has gone through a process of adjustments given the update of contracts (Photo El Observador)
Municipality points to previous administration
The statement from the Municipality of San José directly reproaches the previous administration for the problems with the parking meters. They point out that in this management the hiring was not planned.
“It caused them to want to speed up the hiring process once the elections were lost,” they say.
“They uploaded the public tender to Sicop in January 2024 and it was declared unsuccessful by the Municipal Council in April,” they detail.
That decision was appealed to the Comptroller’s Office by Setex Aparki, the sole bidder. The company won the claim.
This implied that the Municipal Council re-awarded the tender to the company, in the session of September 12.
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Regarding the complaints, they criticize the work of the Audit.
“The auditor is aware of all these details, which are also in the public domain. In a decade, he could not discover a single case of corruption from an administration plagued by irregularities and lacking planning,” they maintain.
“Now, he wants to make accusations and controversy about the supposed non-existence of a service, even though he more than anyone knows the reasons why there is no service today. This only confirms their incompetence,” they closed.
