According to Ponce, when he and Quijano took ownership of the legislature, they encountered a host of positions transferred from contracts to the salary bill.
In response to Assembly Union complaints that there are 1,200 “ghost seats” in the legislature; The President of Congress, Mario Ponce, of the PCN, came out yesterday to clarify this situation.
According to Ponce, when he took over the administration of the Assembly, he discovered that many positions had already been taken in previous administrations, which he tried to “ order the house, ” but could not do because of “ interests of other parties, ” although he started. a voluntary retirement decree in which he offered up to $ 35,000 in compensation, so that “all those who do not work in the facility or who are others in the facility. How many do you think were implemented in that decree?” Only 14 people did not want to go, ”Ponce complained.
He specifically referred to the period of GANA deputy Guillermo Gallegos, as head of the First State Body, in the last year and a half of the 2015-2018 term.
Ponce assumed command of the Assembly in the second half of the current term. The first year and a half was done by the Deputy Norman Quijano, of ARENA, who received the reins of the Assembly from Gallegos, who concluded the second term of the previous government, which ended in April 2018.
IT MAY BE INTERESTING: TSE is preparing Act 2 with a consolidated final check
“Nor can I undo what other administrations have done in the past, the former president (of the Assembly) Norman Quijano, on his departure, when he handed me over, gave me a complicated situation, he fired staff of those who mention, who was hired for the previous president (Gallegos), a person, a deputy who brags from the rooftops, did the procedure wrong and it was the ‘mara cobra’ people, as they say, but the courts forced me to restore them ‘ Ponce said at a press conference yesterday.
When Quijano took office as chairman of the General Assembly in May 2018, he also filed a complaint in the same vein. On that occasion, he denounced the hiring of 186 employees between February and May of that year, approved by Gallegos.
“I want to tell you that the last (places) represent $ 258,000 a month, there are 186 people. These are transfers made between February 1, 2018 and May 4, 2018. Because there was quite a bit of a rush to work on this matter, ‘Quijano said at the time.
IN ADDITION: Assembly Union asks for a dialogue table with new delegates
He added that it was only in the last month of April that the Gallegos government was hiring 19 people and 16 under the salary law, and most salaries ranged between $ 650 and $ 1,600 per month.
Gallegos defended himself against Ponce’s charges. “It is not possible for them to say that after three years, that they take responsibility for their decisions and that they take full responsibility for what they have done for the past three years, to make the Assembly a place where they have activists. hired. of ARENA and the department of Cuscatlán, in the last year and a half of the General Assembly, ”emphasized Gallegos.
The alleged existence of significant places in parliamentary groups and then moving from the contract system to wage law days before the end of a parliamentary term, or in the worst case, there are people who are hired and charge a salary for them not working is a common theme in the meantime from one legislature to another.
The General Secretary of the Union of the Assembly (Sitral), Luis Ortega, assured that in recent days these people who supposedly only get their salary but never came to work have been seen in the legislative corridors with marker cards.
However, Ponce said that some people who were sent home to telecommute because of the pandemic have been entering the People’s Assembly since March 1, and they have the right by law to continue working.