Q COSTARICA — What started as a clash of policies, which grew into a high-stakes showdown between Rodrigo Chaves, while he was president, and Attorney General Carlo Díaz, continues.
The latest dart thrown by Chaves, now “super” minister (Minister of Finance and Minister of the Presidency), referred to Díaz as a “princeso” (prince) after he complained to pro-government legislators about freezing part of the Attorney General’s Office budget.
Díaz expressed his discontent with the budget cuts during his appearance on Wednesday before the Comisión de Seguridad y Narcotráfico de la Asamblea (Legislative Assembly’s Security and Drug Trafficking Committee).
Hours later, during the government’s weekly press conference, Chaves took the opportunity to address Díaz’s complaint.
“Do you remember when we talked about the princes in football (soccer)? There are prosecutors and tax management princes in Costa Rica; Don Carlo is a prince,” said Chaves in his hat as Finance Minister.
Later, Chaves explained that the Judiciary and public universities have separate budgets from the rest of the State institutions, which are governed by the Public Employment Law due to their exclusive and exclusionary nature.
Furthermore, any unused budget from a given year can be placed in a trust for future use.
In the case of the Judiciary, it is allocated 6% by the Constitution, and “we give them an additional 57 billion colones per year; that’s more money than the budgets of the Ministry of Science, Innovation, Technology and Telecommunications (MICITT), the PANI (National Children’s Welfare Board), and many ministries combined,” Chaves explained.
The Minister of Finance asserts that the Judiciary, and in particular the Attorney General’s Office, does not have a resource problem. Because they are “exclusive and exclusionary,” they have “helped themselves to the fullest,” he said, referring to the high salaries.
“Don Carlo, the problem isn’t money, it’s a lack of competence, a lack of effectiveness, a lack of management on your part, as you’re busy with many other personal matters. You can’t tell me that it’s a lack of budget that you haven’t taken Aldesa, Yanber, or La Trocha to court,” the Finance Minister asserted.
Frozen Funds
Díaz’s complaint arose because, during the Chaves administration, the transfer of ¢8.7 billion colones requested by the Organismo de Investigación Judicial (OIJ) and the Attorney General’s Office for the creation of new positions to combat crime in the country was denied.
These funds had been approved by the Legislative Assembly.
However, legislator for the ruling party and former Finance minister in the Chaves administration, Nogui Acosta, refuted before the legislative committee the Attorney General’s claim, asserting that the Judiciary is responsible for transferring the funds to the OIJ and the Attorney General’s Office.
The legislator suggested that Carlo Díaz should demand the allocation of these funds from Orlando Aguirre, President of the Supreme Court of Justice.
“Of every three crimes that are prosecuted, only one ends up with some kind of conviction, and that is a major concern regarding the management of the situation,” said the former minister, referring to statistics that Díaz had previously presented to the legislative committee.
Acosta indicated that the decision not to transfer the funds stems from the fact that these agencies maintain a surplus of ¢18 billion colones.
Rodrigo Chaves’s accusations against the Attorney General came at the same time as he announced budget cuts for the Judiciary, the Legislative Assembly, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE), the Comptroller General’s Office, and the Ombudsman’s Office.
This will mean 27 billion colones less for the Judiciary, a reduction of 2.5 billion colones for the Legislative Assembly, 311 million colones for the Ombudsman’s Office, and 1 billion colones for the Comptroller’s Office.
This decrease in resources will be implemented this year through a Special Budget.
Chaves indicated that the National Budget proposal for 2027, which the Executive Branch must submit to the Legislative Assembly in September, will also incorporate reductions in various institutional budget lines.