The Minister of Science and Technology, Luis Adrián Salazar has announced that six members of the board of directors of the Costa Rican Electricity Institute* have been suspended for a period of four months for ‘irregular actions.’

The members are identified with the surnames: Beirute, Jara, Gutiérrez, Pérez , Martínez and Bogarín.

The suspension was decided "as a precautionary measure. The suspension of the six directors was agreed upon for four months, while the administrative procedures are being developed," said Minister Salazar.

The governing council says that the managers are being investigated for “undue payment of unemployment” and “for apparent irregular actions regarding the figure of general management.”

Minister Salazar reports that the suspension of the directors was done in accordance with the powers granted to the Governing Council in the Political Constitution, the General Law of Public Administration and the law that created ICE. The presumed irregular acts were carried out between 2014 and 2018.

Four of the six managers are being investigated for irregular payment of unemployment to employees of the institute. The employees were transferred from a department known as the Digital Government Division, to the subsidiary company of the Institute, Radiográfica Costarricense SA.

The investigation indicates that these payments were made during the transfer of employees in two groups: one of 14 people on February 1, 2016 and another of 22 people on February 1, 2017. It also includes the transfer of employees of the institute to another subsidiary company of the institute known as Empresa Gestión de Cobro SA.

The Labor Code makes it clear that unemployment payments are provided to allow a former employee to have money to support himself while he looks for another job.

The second investigation affects all six directors of the institute. Six managers are being investigated for allegedly designating a general manager illegally.