The 8.9 billion colones budget for 2017, received the endorsement of the Committee on Financial Affairs of the Legislative Assembly on October 20th.
After intense political negotiations, bitter confrontations and tough questioning to the Government, the report was approved with the votes of 6 Members.
The approval came in the second round of voting, at 8 p.m.
But Otto Guevara, from the Libertarian Movement, explained that he voted against it because he belives the cuts to the budget are insufficient and reiterates his opposition to finance current expenditures with debt.
The budget suffered a cut of ¢ 22 billion in meaningless spending of some ministries and a reallocation of ¢ 47 billion from PANI resources to the Ministry of Public Security, in order to hire more police officers.
The redistribution of PANI´s funds to Public Safety was approved despite criticism, mainly from PAC and Frente Amplio, who estimate that the decision is going to affect the protection program for children.
The budget now goes to the plenary, which has until Nov. 30th to approve it on second reading.