Bernadita Marín, vice minister of Security, spoke on October 6th about budgetary and staff issues in the ministry.
She said that the interest of the ministry is to “clarify” some opinions expressed by legislators.
Marín denied that the Ministry hadn’t properly used all the resources allocated in 2015, when 2.9 billion colones (90%) were spent, most of it for payments.
However, the woman said that the surplus is related to places that cannot be filled, both officers and administrative staff and also due to disabilities.
I haven’t heard of any Ministry that uses 100% of the budget. The places are available for reasons such as quitting, dismissing, officials’ pension or death. Those are the situations that cause the recruitment process,”
said the official.
Several congressmen have claimed that if the Ministry of Security has not used its entire budget, it should not require the approval of the corporate tax law in order to get extra funding to hire more police officers.
There were money donations, since the European Union granted funds for the furnishing and complementary work of the National Police Academy, which is under construction, and therefore those resources are going to be used during the current period and in 2017,”
said Marín.
To date, the police has a shortage of 210 officers. Since October 1st, 140 officials from the police basic course joined the force, but that is not enough.
An officer of the Public Force has an annual cost to the MSP close to 9 million Colones, which includes wages, social charges, insurance policy, food and supplies,”
concluded Bernardita Marín.