October 5, 2022, 4:00 AM
October 5, 2022, 4:00 AM
The spokesman for the presidency, Jorge Richter, revealed yesterday that the World Bank (WB) closed the possibility of providing financial support to the census operation, when the national poll was scheduled for November 16 this year.
President Luis Arce signed Decree 4546 with which he declared the population and housing census a “national priority”. The standard was issued on July 21, 2021 and A little over a year was given to carry out the census. The deadlines were too tight.
“There we had absolutely nothing in preparatory matters. Then the work starts. The first contacts with the cooperators are made and there is an important issue: One of the cooperators had to be the World Bank (WB) and when they saw the time in which we had the intention to carry out the census process, they have withdrawn their intention to be cooperators. That is why the World Bank is not there; there is Fomlata, the IDB and the TGN (The General Treasury of the Nation)”, explained the spokesman.
I further point out that When that norm was signed, the urgency of carrying out the fiscal pact and the reassignment of seats “was installed” in the opinion climates and regional pressure, exerted especially from Santa Cruz to carry out the survey. Richter specified that at that time “coordination with the municipalities” was prioritized and highlighted that later the participation of universities was promoted, especially to speed up the registration processes.
After negotiating with international organizations, the Legislature approved the loans for the census on July 7. Thus, he endorsed a total loan of $100 million that will be used by the National Institute of Statistics (INE) for the censusas well as for other studies. With the operation, the budget for the great survey was completed, which, in principle, should have been carried out in November.
The resources will come from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) for the Program to Strengthen the State Statistical System. The loan contract establishes that 26.40% ($26.4 million) will be allocated to the census and 73.60% ($73.6 million) to other surveys. and the INE strengthening programs.
Four days later, President Arce met with the Autonomous Council to agree on the postponement of the census. At the meeting it was revealed that the INE had not advanced in the cartographic update, an essential step to be able to develop the survey and several other processes were already delayed.
“The central government must answer why, since the validity of Decree 4546 of July 21, 2021, the INE did not do its job to carry out the census on November 16, 2022”, affirmed the constitutionalist José Luis Santistevan, advisor to the Interinstitutional Committee promoting the Census.
The lawyer noted that Due to these facts “there is no technical basis for having postponed the census for two years.yes”. He regretted that the technical reports that justify this delay have not been published and that, given this scenario, he proposed as a possible date that the census be carried out in the first half of 2023.
