The mayor of Soyapango says that until the reform of the Constitution, the assignment of Fodes is an obligation of the president.
While the President of the Republic continues to leave in suspense the funds that by law correspond to mayors and when he threatens to veto the budget allocation that the Legislature has made to municipalities, different mayors expose a tight situation on their territories, which even threatens to paralyze operations and suspend projects for the benefit of their localities.
Soyapango Mayor Juan Pablo Álvarez says his municipality has $ 8 million in debt due to a lack of Fodes and that since the fund’s payment is not completed within budget, it would continue to affect municipal projects and programs.
SEE ALSO: Prosecutor’s Office investigates possible offenses with late payment of first Fodes
“As long as the Constitution does not change, he (Bukele) is obliged by law, if he does (remove Fodes from the budget), he will most likely be prosecuted at the end of his term. It seems that if (he works) he doesn’t do it, no one else can do it, he wants to centralize everything “, says the mayor of Soyapango.
He adds that there are at least 15 municipalities that are going through a difficult situation because they do not have Fodes and that the population is affected by projects that have been stopped.
“As he (Bukele) has confessed, the surest thing is that we will probably put a notification (in the Prosecutor’s Office) against the president, given that he publicly acknowledges that he is behind all this against local governments,” he said. Álvarez.
The mayor of Santa Tecla, Roberto d’Aubuisson, states that Fodes goes for social infrastructure works, scholarships, municipal clinics, nurseries, for the benefit of the population, there are no funds that go to the mayors.
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“No one knows the needs of a population better than a mayor, because he is the official closest to the population. The fact that the president (Bukele) shows that (that money is lost in the mayors) shows a total ignorance of the function of what the mayors do and who worries because he was mayor and then he was one of those who fought because the Fodes fund was transferred when he was one month late, and now that he is six months late, ”explains d’Aubuisson.
In her turn, the dean of ESEN economics, Carmen Aída Lazo, emphasizes that the Executive has no room for maneuver to determine the percentage that is allocated to mayors, because it is a law that must be respected.
It is necessary to see the public works plans
On Sunday, December 27, the government announced that next year they will execute the entire budget for public works in just 4 months and that, when a new Assembly arrives, which hopes to be favorable, it will manage new resources for projects.
SEE ALSO: Bukele Government intends to spend the entire 2021 public works budget in four months and then request more money with a new Assembly
“I do not see it as feasible for the time they have shown in the execution. They do not seem to keep their promises, the same was said about the hospital (El Salvador) and the bridge (Chichilco). The evidence in history shows us that they are too optimistic regarding the execution periods of the public works “, said Lazo regarding the announcement.