The illegitimate president Daniel Ortegasent to the National Assembly four reform law initiatives to place a “co-director” at the direction of the institutions, appointed by Ortega himself, who will have the power to exercise legal representation and even appoint or remove employees.
The initiatives, dated May 5, seek to modify the organization and board of directors of the Urban and Rural Housing Institute (Invur), Nicaraguan Institute of Territorial Studies (Internet), Nicaraguan Institute of Tourism (Intur) and the National Forestry Institute (Inafor), according to Ortega, to “modernize” and achieve a better internal organization of the public administration that “answers demand efficiently and effectively.” In practice, the measure of having a “second in command” is already carried out.
In the amendment to Law 428, Organic Law of Invur, it is mandated that “the highest-ranking officials will be two co-directors appointed by the President of the Republic, who will exercise legal representation.” When those appointed cannot attend the sessions, they will be chaired by the Minister of Finance or the Minister of Transportation.
Thus reforming the second paragraph of article 1, subparagraph a and the penultimate paragraph of article 8, and article 9.
The reform initiative Law 311, Organic Law of Ineter and its reformsestablishes changing article 12 referring to the composition of the Senior Management, which will read as follows: «The Senior Management (Disup) will be made up of two co-directors and a general secretary, all of them appointed by the President of the Republic ».
The project to reform the Law 298, Creative Law of the Inturmandates to modify articles 1, 10 numeral 1 and article 17. With this, the Direction and Administration of the institution will be in charge of a Board of Directors, two co-directors, a general secretary and other officials of Intur.
“The highest-ranking officials will be two co-directors appointed by the President of the Republic, who will exercise legal representation,” he reiterates. In addition, they will have the power to appoint or remove the general secretary and other officers and employees of Intur.
“Sessions of the Board of Directors cannot be held without the presence of the co-director,” he adds.
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The reform initiative Law 462, Law of Conservation, Promotion and Sustainable Development of the forestry sectorasks to change articles 7, second paragraph, and article 50, subparagraph a, to state that it will be these “co-directors” of Ortega who will exercise legal representation and will preside over the Inafor.
So far this year, the regime has modified the structures of at least six institutions in the fields of municipalities, fishing, culture, energy and sports (Inifom, INC, Cornap, Inpesca, Enatrel, IND) with which, according to analysts , seeks to legalize the absolute control and surveillance of the presidential couple over the decisions of the directors and employees of state institutions.
“This has been going on for more than 10 years in the Government of putting co-directors at the same level that the only thing it seeks is to put two people to compete so that the information flows to Rosario (Murillo), that is, it is a method of centralization », explained the political analyst and former liberal deputy Elisha Nunez Morales.
He indicated that the practice causes “distortions in command” and shows that Murillo, illegitimate deputy president, “takes over public affairs as if it were her home” to the detriment of the well-being of the population.
«By putting two people (in the direction), the one who feels less powerful, at some point, betrays the other and vice versa. So with this, she (Murillo) maintains absolute control of the institutions », he added.
In 2014, the Executive asked to appoint two co-directors in the National System for Disaster Prevention, Mitigation and Attention (Sinapred) because, according to its then private secretary Paul Oquist, it is an organization that has to work “seven days a week and 24 hours a day” and the director has to “sleep”, while the other “is in charge”. A year later, the dictatorial couple had already made more than five changes of co-directors.
