The parade of budget cuts to various State institutions in the 2023 General Budget continues, including the University of Panama, the Gorgas Commemorative Institute, Pandeportes and the National Authority for Transparency and Access to Information (ANTAI), despite being one of the higher budgets. The economist Raúl Moreira deepened in this regard this Thursday morning on Radio Panama.
“When we talk about these cuts from the institutions, many times it is a cut from last year’s budget and not a cut in their budget expectations for the year in which it is going to be discussed,” he explained.
Regarding the cut to the University of Panama, he considered that “effectively, in relation to its budget last year, it is suffering a cut of about $7 million.” While, regarding the Gorgas situation, he stressed that “it is receiving a very important cut, despite the fact that it had to do so much with the issue of the pandemic and everything that we are still seeing; in relation to the previous budget, it is $7 million less”.
However, he specified that there are other institutions that are having increases, such is the case of the Authority for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (AMPYME) and the Autonomous University of Chiriquí, the latter which, according to what he indicated, “is growing by nearly $2 million “:
In the case of the ministries that present this increase in their budget, are the Ministry of Public Works, the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Health.
“In the MOP the current expenses are $32 million and the investment expense reflects $1,173 million, that is, it is actually being allocated to projects, but in the case of MEDUCA it is the other way around, there are $2,200 million in operation and only $506 million in investment, which is relatively little for maintenance and possible elimination of ranch classrooms,” he mentioned.
