A new bill presented by the Government intends that emergency calls made to line 9-1-1 be taken by the Fire Department because the Emergency System faces serious administrative and financial problems, according to Zapote.
To transfer the service, the proposal made to the legislators is to take advantage of the infrastructure, technology platform and specialized human capital of the Office of Communications of the Fire Department for this other task, which is now in legislative power.
Currently, the Emergency System has a debt to the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE) of more than ¢4 billion. In addition, the annual operating cost for 2018 was estimated at ¢4.3 billion and estimated revenues would be ¢3.9 billion.
In addition, the initiative proposes that the National Institute of Insurance (INS) contribute $10 million a single time to the Fire Department Fund, which will be used to strengthen its infrastructure and technology.
The project seeks to improve the finances of the Emergency system, to restructure it to improve the service and to avoid the growth of indebtedness,”
reported the government in a press release.
Sergio Alfaro, Minister of the Presidency, indicated that they expect the approval of this project as soon as possible.