Zelaya says he manages a loan with CABEI to transfer money to the mayors, but the petition will be presented to the new Assembly taking office on May 1 and the opposition mayors will have to wait.
Finance Minister Alejandro Zelaya confirmed yesterday that they cannot “force” him to pay the Fodes that he owes to the mayors for more than nine months, the majority of which will be in the hands of the opposition until April 30.
According to Zelaya, the resolution of the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court did not order him to pay immediately to the mayors, but instead ordered him to take “steps” to cancel the debt.
You can read: Finance Minister about Fodes: “They can’t force me to pay it”
“The resolution of the Chamber is quite clear, it says: the minister is instructed within his powers to carry out the steps aimed at paying the Fodes, because they know that they cannot force me to pay them directly. . It is not an order from the Constitutional Chamber, ”the official stated during a television interview.
On February 4, however, the Chamber ordered the Minister of Finance to carry out “immediately” the administrative and financial procedures so that the funds are paid to the mayors.
He also ordered him to draw up a transfer calendar so that the delay in the payment of mandatory performance is not “repeated”, because it is the law of the Republic.
The mayors have sued the prosecution for investigating the minister for non-compliance with the Chamber’s resolution, but Zelaya is challenging them. “I don’t care that they go to the prosecutor’s office,” he said yesterday.
The Treasury has stopped transferring the money to the 262 mayors since June 2020. Until January of this year, the debt was $ 360 million, as reported last month by the president of the Salvadoran Municipal Development Institute (ISDEM), the mayor of San Salvador. , Ernesto Muyshondt.
To that debt comes the February payment that they have not been transferred either, and there are no signs that they will be paid anytime soon.
Some municipalities have had to suspend their waste collection service due to lack of means to pay for the service. Photo: EDH / Archives
The president of the Corporation of Municipalities of El Salvador (COMURES), Milagro Navas, had expressed the hope that once the elections were over, they would start paying their debts, but the finance minister has a different plan. “(The mayors) have to wait for the Fodes until we get approval in the General Assembly; I cannot pay them and I run the risk of not paying the foreign debt, ”he stated.
While the government keeps them waiting, in many municipalities they are making adventures with the resources and some mayors have announced that they cannot provide services such as waste collection because they have no money to pay.
This is the case in municipalities like Quezaltepeque, where outgoing mayor Salvador Saget believes the minister’s position is political, after the majority was won in the February 28 elections.
“They believe that when the new mayor comes they will give him 12 months of Fodes and they believe they will come and fix everything and no, the mayors are in debt; it is unfortunate that a direct order from the Supreme Court is not followed up, ”he said.
In San Antonio de la Cruz, Chalatenango, residents will not receive a waste collection service due to lack of Fodes.
Will attend the new Meeting
The official added that he is seeking a loan from CABEI (Central American Bank for Economic Integration) to pay the Fodes and that he will present the proposal to the next Assembly which will take place on May 1, when the mayors appointed by New Ideas also won office.
“I asked CABEI to help us with the funding to transfer it and they said yes and we will bring it to the Assembly in due course,” he said.
In the new Assembly, the ruling New Ideas party will hold the majority of the seats and favor Nayib Bukele’s government.
The management of a loan with CABEI, which is insured by the Minister of Finance, contrasts with what the Court of Auditors has stated that it had money for the Fodes.
Also read: Residents of San Antonio de la Cruz will not receive a waste collection service due to a lack of Fodes
“According to the data, in the preliminary financial analysis provided by the audit team, we confirmed that there was money to make the transfers,” said Roberto Anzora, president of the Court of Auditors, last November.
Regarding what Zelaya said he will apply for a new loan to pay the Fodes, former Finance Minister Manuel Enrique Hinds believes the government should first present the full accounts of each of the items. “It cannot be that they go out and say: today I have for Fodes and tomorrow they say they have nothing else. They really should say what the state of the country’s finances is like. ‘