Given the announcement that it intends to implement public works funds in just 4 months by 2021, experts highlight the mediocre execution capacity.
It is illegal for the government to plan to spend the 2021 public works budget within four months, opposition representatives say. This is because the plan is built on the projection of the income the country will have, and if there are any moves in the budget law, it must be approved by the legislative assembly.
ARENA’s deputy René Portillo Cuadra explains that President Nayib Bukele would bring about unconstitutionality by wanting to spend an annual budget in the months of January, February, March and April, and in May, when he starts a new legislative assembly, to pretend to acquire a different budget, since there cannot be two in the same fiscal year.
It may interest you: Bukele’s plan requires a VAT hike or new taxes
He adds that President Bukele’s statements are irresponsible as the decrees are still in final draft, therefore they have not yet reached the presidential house and he cannot claim they will be vetoed or sanctioned.
“It seems irresponsible to say that it will be spent in four months if the budget depends on the income of the state, if there is not enough income because the country’s economy is in a depression. There is also a legal and constitutional problem: the 12-month budget cannot be spent in four months, as the money is expected to pay for the salaries, debts and the entire workings of the state, ”said Portillo Cuadra.
Yesterday, however, Bukele clarified that he is referring to the investment budget in public works and not in relation to wages, as Public Works Minister Romeo Herrera hinted in a tweet he later deleted.
Tatiana Marroquín, an expert economist, believes that it is illegal for the president to want to spend an annual money within 4 months, as the budget is divided into projects and items, in addition to the fact that only the Legislative Assembly, according to the constitution, has the power to reform the budget law.
“To spend the budget in four months, it should not be spent in accordance with the Budget Law. To be able to spend it, it has to shift what will be spent at the beginning of the year in the last few months, and any budget move has to go through the Assembly, ”he explains.
ALSO SEE: The executive branch set a trap for the delegates’ budget project, the Assembly president said
He adds that it is reckless and arbitrary, and also impossible from a financial point of view, to want to make such a large outlay, because the budget is a projection of how the funds that are planned to be received from revenue from tax collection. will be spent. and if they don’t meet the fundraising goals, they can’t spend.
According to Marroquín, for 2021, the government has the same public works budget as this year, which is nearly $ 1,200 million, and this year they could not spend what they had planned for investment in works.
“The capacity that the government has had to do public works is very poor, it’s very low, they have the money they couldn’t run, let alone do it so quickly in four months “, he said.
He also warned that “if they managed to find the money, it would remain illegal and arbitrary, it is also not viable, because you can see how investment projects have been carried out, they have not been efficient in it, they have not even yet. 70% of the final budget investment, let alone one of $ 1,200 million like 2021 ”.
Deputy Shafick Hándal, of the FMLN, points out that President Bukele has “improved the page” in the budget by removing excess expenditures, such as $ 57 million, that were earmarked for consultancies, the details of which they do not know.
In addition, the delegates removed excess funds for destinations not explained in the project, which now the Salvadoran president has published that it will be investments in works, where they were not withdrawn for the health and education items, in addition to adding a 5% increase in public employees who earned up to $ 1,000 and had no rank.
Handal also explains that the increase in the minimum pension was a proposal from the FMLN, and that President Bukele has now labeled it his victory.
It may interest you: The Bukele government plans to spend the entire 2021 Public Works budget in four months and then ask for more money with a new Assembly
“He is an irresponsible person who does not run the country, but believes it is his personal property and that he can do whatever he wants. In saying that it will have another Assembly in May, it has already unveiled its main plan, to centralize power in the presidency, ”said Hándal.
“Lying ignorance”
The executive director of the National Development Foundation (Funde), Roberto Rubio, described this idea as ‘ignorance in the supine position’ because they do not understand that the only way to have a different budget for the rest of the year, even if they to have a majority in the Assembly is to increase income, and that will only be done 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 ”.
“Wherever you see it, it is not credible,” said economist and dean of the Higher School of Economics and Business (ESEN), Carmen Aída Lazo, adding that it gives the impression that the current government “still does not knows how it works the state and its processes ”.
Likewise, Rubio added that this is far from a serious technical-based announcement, but an electoral maneuver that seeks to ‘demoralize’ the opposition, showing that an overwhelming victory for the president’s party is inevitable.