The Treasury Secretary on Monday tried to change the version of what had been announced by Bukele, saying that “no one would think about” spending the budget for works in the first months of the year. This would be unrealistic for the political opposition.
Legislative Assembly deputies on Monday responded to President Nayib Bukele’s statements about trying to implement all of the 2021 funds earmarked for public works in just 4 months and then asking for more money from the next Assembly.
“And so that the works don’t stop, we will invest what they have allocated to us for the year, in 4 months,” the president wrote in a summary of a video on December 27 explaining which areas the funds will be allocated to.
SEE: The Bukele government plans to spend the entire 2021 Public Works budget in four months, then ask for more money with another meeting
This statement was later supported by the Minister of Public Works, Romeo Rodríguez, who stated in a radio interview: “As the president said, we are going to use the budget for the whole year in four months. We will then ask in the new Legislative Assembly for the necessary resources to carry out works on behalf of the country ”.
According to parliamentarians that would be illegal and they also emphasize that it is something unreal.
FMLN deputy Yanci Urbina said they apparently already regretted saying it.
“They commit illegality after an unfortunate illegality, what we see is a government promoting illegality,” he wondered.
In this regard, ARENA’s deputy Margarita Escobar stated that the nation’s general budget is annual and that it is planned in this way.
“If President Bukele decides to issue it within four months and in the hope that the next meeting will give him another annual budget, it seems a bit unreal to me,” Escobar criticized.
For his part, PDC deputy Rodolfo Parker explained that the documentation related to the general budget is a series of decrees and that the constitution requires it, the Constitutional Chamber has reaffirmed this. “The general budget must be in balance and in order to be in balance, the planned expenditure must be supported by the respective funding,” argued Parker.
For his part, the President of the Assembly and deputy of the PCN, Mario Ponce, noted that “any use of resources in an erratic manner or the intention of using the resources of May, June, July and December in some way in an embezzlement. ”.
“In the very specific case of this state body, this server cannot spend the money, I just need to spend January, February, March and April, I cannot touch the May money. We cannot spend an entire year’s resources, ”said Ponce.
However, this Monday, Finance Minister Alejandro Zelaya attempted to change the version of what was announced by Bukele, saying that “no one would think about” spending the working budget in the first months of the year. “We should be crazy … it is impossible,” said the official.
ALSO: Implementing the 2021 budget in 4 months is unrealistic and illegal
At the time, the Executive Director of the National Development Foundation (Funde), Roberto Rubio, described this idea raised by the government as “ lying ignorance ” because they don’t understand that it’s the only way to have a different budget for the rest of The year, although getting a majority in the Assembly, is to increase income and that will only happen with debt.
It is almost impossible for him to spend the budget in four months, it is a sign of ignorance, “especially when it comes to a rather clumsy government that has not even been able to build the hospital in El Salvador. It is not only a question of money, but also of capacity ”.