The Minister of Finance, José Manuel -Jochi- Vicente, once again defended the reallocation of resources of 4% intended for Education, to be used in other areas by the Executive Power and reiterated that the measure does not violate the Constitution as those who oppose it have alleged.
Vicente published a thread on his Twitter account in which he reiterates that “it is not about spending more, but about spending well”, which justifies the modification of the budget to redirect the items and says that institutions cannot be asked to invent things on which to spend resources.
He affirmed that the Government’s priority at this time is to mitigate the effects of inflation and at the same time protect the population, especially the low-income population.
“We have transparently requested the reformulation of items that are not going to be executed in different ministries, including Education. Certain questions have been raised. Some totally reasonable and others of a media nature and for political purposes”he claimed.
“One of the questions is whether or not the modification violates the Constitution. From the point of view of the Government, the answer is that there is NO violation. The Constitution must be read completely and comprehensively. Article 63 clearly establishes that it is ‘the LAW that records the amounts…’. The same Constitution in article 234 says that Congress can modify the budget “LAW” project, ”says Vicente in his messages.
“Why are you requesting a reformulation of 4,250 million of the Education budget? When you see the execution of the programs that are being reformulated, you come to the conclusion that they will NOT be able to be executed in the next 4 months,” said the official.
In this sense, he added: “Then the question is: Should the government leave the budgeted resources to those programs that for various reasons are not going to be fully executed, or should it direct those resources to more pressing priorities, such as social subsidies? It is not about spending to spend. It’s about spending well. In order to have quality spending, we cannot force institutions to spend their entire budget even when they cannot execute it or ask them to invent things to spend on,” the official wrote.
