AMCostaRica©
AMCostaRica©
.
Cordero
replaces the former minister, Rocío
Aguilar, who presented her official
resignation Wednesday.
/ Financial Ministry courtesy
photos.
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-Published:
Friday, October 25, 2019-
President appoints the new
Finance minister
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
President Carlos Alvarado appointed on
Thursday Rodolfo Cordero-Vargas the new
minister of Finance.
According to the ministry, Cordero is an
economist and business manager with an
emphasis on finance. He was the former
vice minister of the Department of
Expenditures of the ministry.
He worked at the Costa Rican Institute of
Electricity where he was in charge of
strategic institutional planning. Also, he
worked in the Legislative Assembly as an
adviser in law analysis.
Cordero replaces the former minister,
Rocío Aguilar, who presented her official
resignation Wednesday, as A.M. Costa Rica
previously reported.
Aguilar's resignation is due to the
Comptroller General's recommendation to
suspend her from her duties for the next
30 days. The comptroller gave that
recommendation based on an allegation of
mismanagement of finances and the deficit
in the budget that had remained since the
previous government of former president
Luis Guillermo Solis.
According to Aguilar, her decision was
taken to prevent the president from having
to execute the comptroller's order and
suspend her for 30 days.
"I am not going to put the president in a
situation where he had to choose whether I
should be suspended and then come back, so
I anticipate that and present my
irrevocable resignation," said the former
minister at a press conference. "I
couldn't leave the president in that
dilemma."
The former minister said she does not
agree with the comptroller's decision
because that institution also did not
alert the government in time about
spending money that was not budgeted and
approved by lawmakers.
"She has served the country with
distinction. Her hard work was key to
stabilize and clean up public finances,"
said Alvarado at Aguilar's resignation. "I
do not agree with the comptroller's
resolution, Ms. Rocío has always worked to
protect the best interests of the
country."
Among the main goals of Aguilar as Finance
minister was the approval of the fiscal
reform, the implementation of the
value-added tax and the cuts to the
government budget.
The sanctions issued by the comptroller
were also applied to four more officials,
as follow:
The former Finance minister, Helio Fallas.
The current director of the Bank of Costa
Rica, Julio Espinoza,
The director of the National Treasury,
Marta Cubillo.
The director of Public Credit, Melvin
Jiménez.
The budget shortfall came during the
previous government of former president
Solis. In April the deputies of the
Special Permanent Commission of Income and
Public Expenditure approved a report on
the investigation of the government’s
budget shortfall and said the unbudgeted
expenditures were about ₡900 billion
colones (about $1.5 billion).
Related to the budget shortfall, the
deputies asked in their resolution that
former president Solís and Fallas,
the former minister of Finance, be banned
from holding any public position for four
years.
The deputies requested that the report be
delivered to the Prosecutor's Office to
establish the civil and criminal
responsibilities of the seven persons who
were investigated.
Jonathan Prendas, a deputy and president
of the commission said there is enough
evidence to be able to show the possible
illegal acts of both a civil and criminal
nature of seven people as follows:
- Former president Solís.
- Former minister of Finance, Fallas.
- Now the former minister of Finance,
Aguilar.
Four additional high authorities from the
Ministry of Finance, Cubillo, Marjorie
Morera, Espinoza, and Melvin Quirós.
In September 2018, former president Solís
appeared before the commission of deputies
where he said that he was unaware of the
shortfall in the budget.
According to former president Solis, "the
possibility of raising an extraordinary
budget was never raised" by the government
advisors.
Former president Solis said his technical
financial team worked since February 2017
in the process to prepare an eventual
extraordinary budget. However, this
process was finished by July 2017, when
the new government of president Alvarado
was already in place.
Solís was the president of Costa Rica from
2014 to 2018. He is a member of the
center-left Citizens' Action Party, known
as PAC.
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Should the new minister Cordero continue
with the management of public finances on
the same line of former minister
Aguilar? We would like to
know your thoughts on this story. Send
your comments to: news@amcostarica.com
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