By overcoming the deputies ’presidential rejections to three decrees funding the Nation’s 2020 budget, the process will go to controversy in the Constitutional Chamber.
Deputies from the Finance Committee agreed on Monday to overcome three vetoes by President Nayib Bukele on legislative decrees passed by the Assembly, one of them to fund the increase in the minimum pension and for development projects municipal, with loan funds that were pending the pandemic to be ratified.
There were several agreements that will have to be overcome in this week’s plenary with 56 votes from parliamentarians. Legislative Decree no. 803 relating to the $ 250 million loan from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), are expected to exceed it, which contains $ 125 million to increase the minimum pension from $ 207 to $ 304 per month; and another $ 125 million for municipal development projects.
I’LL SEE: Nayib Bukele raises minimum pension without securing funds
Bukele based his veto on the fact that the credit with the IDB was originally authorized to “support the efforts and actions of the Government of the Republic, in order to contain the health crisis arising from VOCID-19 and economic recovery. of country, ”all of which the government has already used more than $ 1 billion of the $ 2 billion the Assembly authorized it to fight the pandemic.
But according to ARENA deputy Donato Vaquerano, the funds contained in the decrees gave him “robustness to the 2021 budget”.
“Today we are going to overcome these vetoes to remove them for the next plenary session, we also received notification from the Chamber issuing an opinion on the decree that gave it the opportunity to have funds for mayors and that is also it’s going to correct the mistake the Room pointed out and we’re going to spend it next week, ”Vaquerano explained.
MPF Yanci Urbina, from the FMLN, argued in the Finance Committee that Bukele’s veto is very “ill-founded”.
He added that there is evidence in the file that the destination was examined on the grounds that unallocated funds for pandemic care funding were redirected for the operation of the 2021 budget.
Read more: Bukele sends last-minute veto to raise minimum pension
“This was an initiative that was raised, we are raising it for an important reason that this process of discretionary use or misuse of public funds cannot be continued,” Urbina pointed out.
Deputies also agreed to overcome another veto made by Bukele on another $ 50 million loan with the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI), to allocate resources to the purchase of the COVID-19 vaccine.