In 2019, the perception of corruption in public institutions increased in all countries of the region except Costa Rica, where it remained the same as in 2018.
As has been the case in recent years, Nicaragua's public sector continues to be perceived as the most corrupt in the region (transparency level 22 on a scale of 0 to 100), followed by Guatemala (26), Honduras (26), Dominican Republic (28), El Salvador (34), Panama (36), and Costa Rica (56).
The Dominican Republic, Panama and Honduras are the nations in the region where the majority of the population believes that corruption in governmentinstitutions has increased in the last twelve months.
The report "Barómetro Global de la Corrupción: América Latina y El Caribe 2019 - Opiniones y Experiencias de los ciudadanos en materia de corrupción" (Global Corruption Barometer: Latin America and the Caribbean 2019 - Opinions and Experiences of Citizens on Corruption), compiled by Transparency International and published on September 23, 2019, evaluated the perception of corruption in the countries of the region and some aspects of insecurity.
The power of public employees' guilds in the country was evidenced by the agreement that authorities of the Social Security Fund agreed to sign in order that employees of the entity may continue to enjoy privileges to the detriment of others.
EDITORIAL
Arguing that "judicializing" the strike was the only and best way out that could be achieved in the short term, the highest authorities of the Costa Rican Social Security Fund (CCSS) complied with the pressures of trade guild members, who with the desire to maintain the differential treatment they have enjoyed for many years, suspended access to basic health services, even carrying out actions as despicable as closing a blood bank and paralyzing equipment for cancer treatment.
The greater interest in studying social sciences and the lesser inclination for training in technical or scientific areas may be partly because of the preference of professionals for employment in a government institution rather than in the private sector.
According to data from the National Council of Rectors (Conare), between 2006 and 2016, in Costa Rica the careers in the area of Social Sciences registered the highest growth according to the proportion of graduates, going from 36.2% to 45.5% of the total number of students.
In the first six months of the year, government entities from the countries of the region submitted 73 environmental impact studies for the construction of different public infrastructure projects.
The interactive platform "Construction in Central America", from the Trade Intelligence Area of CentralAmericaData, provides the updated list of public and private constructionprojects that present the environmental impact studies (EIA) to the respective institutions of each country.
Although insufficient, the package of government spending containment measures proposed by the Alvarado administration is a good first step on the way forward to resolving Costa Rica's delicate fiscal situation.
The Minister of Finance, Rocio Aguilar, presented before the Legislative Assembly a plan to contain government spending that includes, among other measures, decreeing "...
The private sector has denounced the government for not convening in the Legislative Assembly bills related to public employment that would eliminate some of the privileges given to public servants.
From a statement issued by the UCCAEP:
December 5, 2016.The Costa Rican Union of Chambers and Associations of Private Enterprises (UCCAEP), is denouncing the government because of the lack of projects related to public employment in the call records drawn up by the executive branch, for special sessions of the Legislature.
The project to build a mini city to house the offices of state entities, with a cost of $400 million, is facing opposition from the Varela administration.
The "Government City" project, which remained on paper for several years, was resuscitated during the Martinelli administration, with companies even being pre-qualifying for the work, although in the end it never actually materialized.Now the Varela government is arguing that it will not allocate budget funds to carry out the project.
The private companies should have to consider the risk posed to Costa Rica's business climate by the excesses of state union leaders.
EDITORIAL
Costa Rica's democratic traditions pale before the attempt made by a trade unionist to silence the media by threatening the safety of journalists.
An article in Crhoy.com quote statements made by the union member Fabio Chaves regarding the news in Costa Rican media revealing information about unacceptable privileges enjoyed by many officials, acquired against article 57 of the Constitution itself: "Wages will always be equal for equal work under identical conditions of efficiency."
"Civil service careers are influenced by arbitrariness, politicization, patronage, the search for private profit and patronage criteria and with posts being filling up with public servants who do not have the sufficient merits to perform their functions."
From a statement issued by the Salvadoran Foundation for Development (FUSADES), regarding the report The Civil Service and Patronage:
In Costa Rica civil servants earn on average 150% more than workers in the private sector, which contributes decisively to the growth of inequality and lowers the overall competitiveness of human resources.
"... State overregulation has made business legality a privilege that can only be accessed with economic or political power. "
EDITORIAL
In these countries, poor since time immemorial, state bureaucrats whose regular salaries allow them to live in a first world fantasy land have as their primary concern checking that things are done as they should be, that is to say, as they are done in the first world.
A year into its tenure, the government of Costa Rica has announced the formation of a joint committee to study a national plan for recycling and recovery of waste.
EDITORIAL:
In another grim example of the difficulties faced by rulers in Costa Rica to make executive decisions on public works, existing plans - which are currently on hold, and will probably disappear - for investment in the waste management and recycling sector, including generating power from them, due to the fact that the current government has decided to start from scratch with the formation of a committee to "develop strategies" on the topic. As if there were not already enough information on his issue, and as if the respective participants and those responsible had not expressed themselves sufficiently in this respect. It is the same case with the commission on energy introduced by this government.
Odebrecht, ICA and the mexican company Marhnos are some of the foreign companies that could be interested in building the State Administrative Center, estimated at $180 million.
Grupo Spectrum and Constructora Nacional S. A. (Conasa) are the only two Guatemalan companies so far, according to authorities, who have shown interest in participating in the pre-qualification process for construction of the State Administrative Center in form of a public-private partnership.
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