In 2017, legislators of the National Liberation Party (PLN) who were also members of the Treasury Commission warned about the gap in the Government’s budget which is now a reality, following the announcement of the Ministry of Finance, where they talk about a shortfall of 900 billion colones.
In the document, which was also signed by Rosibel Ramos, former legislator of the Christian Social Unity Party (PUSC), estimated that, taking into account the expected financial balance for this year
means that the following shortages of resources will occur by 2018: Primary deficit: ₡ 1,149,597.6 million and financial deficit: ₡2,526,402.4 million.”
Those missing funds would be the result of the budget contemplating cuts in expenses of up to 50% in fixed costs.
This can have severe impacts on existing commitments and apparently have a high impact on the fulfillment of legal and contractual obligations that from the Legislative Assembly is impossible to verify,”
said the legislators in 2017.
One of the lawmakers who signed this report was Paulina Ramírez, who explained that, in November of last year, they analyzed 1,500 subheadings of a total of 8,500 that came with budgets lower than what was needed.
The Minister of Finance said she found out about this budget deficit a month and a half ago and therefore opted for the presentation of the extraordinary budget for ₡600 billion, since she did not obtain any information from her predecessor Helio Fallas on this issue.
However, according to Ramírez, the authorities cannot claim ignorance because they had already warned them.
The regular budget for the year 2018 was presented in the Legislative Assembly, on September 1st, 2017, for an amount of 9,313,932.4 million, which, compared to the previous year, meant an increase of 3.23 %.