No government official may hold two or more positions, or receive two or more salaries under the State Budget Salary Act, as approved by the alternates.
During the early hours of December 24, and after a marathon day, the Assembly approved the Nation’s General Budget for 2021 by 59 votes, 2 against and 1 abstention. One aspect that the delegates also defined is the ban on places for advertisements. honorem in Public Administration for this 2021.
Assessing how many officials hold dual positions in the executive branch and why, while some are “ad honorem,” was precisely one of the goals set by the delegates for 2021.
“Ad honorem positions in the public administration are prohibited by the terms of the salary law, contract or under any type or modality, and no official or public employee may hold such positions,” reads Article 4 of Decree 86, approved by legislators.
SEE: Assembly will try to eliminate double charges “ad honorem”
In addition, this article also provides that no government official may hold two or more positions or receive two or more salaries under the state budget under the pay law.
As approved, contracts for temporary professional services or health insurance for civil servants are also not allowed.
The ban comes in a year in which civil servants with ad honorem positions on the board of Bukele are known.
There are several civil servants who fall under this concept and hold dual functions, as they serve as ministers or senior officials of the Presidency of the Republic, but do not receive a salary for that function, but they do have an advisory function for which there is a salary. awarded.
An example of this is the Legal Secretary to the Presidency, Conan Castro, who admitted last May that his position is ad honorem, but that he does receive a salary for a position of legal counsel to the Presidency. The most recent is the appointment of the director of the police, Mauricio Arriaza Chicas, as Deputy Minister of Security, when he was already in charge of the police, something the organic law of this security agency prohibits. Arriaza Chicas resigned as Deputy Minister a day before the plenary of the deposition against him in the People’s Assembly.
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The provisions include that public funds may not be used to finance, directly or indirectly, the activities of companies or companies that do not perform the functions that are under their responsibility by express legal provision. This after knowing that the company that owns the government newspaper was founded with resources from CEL subsidiaries.
The decree also prohibits making changes to the pay law to transfer functions to the contract system that are not justified within the framework established by the civil service law, or by other legal instruments that regulate this, such as: collective contracts, awards arbitration or court decisions. .
Likewise, the vacancies that were open at the beginning of the financial year and that are not used for more than one year may not be used; In such cases, and if it is established that the need for human resources is urgent and unavoidable, the institutions may contract personal services in accordance with the conditions set out in Article 83 of the general budgetary provisions.
This decree takes effect on the day of publication in the Official Gazette.
Cuts in official propaganda
The budget project presented on September 30 by the Minister of Finance, Alejandro Zelaya, also saw some financial cuts, one of these adjustments was made to the advisory and government advertising items, CEPA, Lotería Nacional de Beneficencia, CIFCO and other institutions.
To meet budgetary reinforcements for certain institutions, such as the Court of Auditors and the TSE, rebates totaling $ 450.12 million were applied to several portfolios, including: the presidency of the republic was reduced by $ 47.1 million; 27 million for the treasury and 27.6 million for defense.
One of the major changes to the spending plan is to increase minimum pensions from $ 204 to $ 307 per month.
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