Information about salaries of officials at the state run telecoms company has been released, which include the more than $4000 a month paid to a chauffeur.
EDITORIAL
An article in Prensalibre.cr reports that “… deputy Otto Guevara unveiled the list of salaries of 22000 officials working in the Costa Rican Electricity Institute (ICE) and Radiographic Costarricense (RACSA) and National Power and Light Company (CNFL), which included details of a light vehicle chauffer earning ¢2,132,854 ($4,000) a month. It also highlighted the 854,000 colones ($1,600) paid to a floral arranger and 6 million colones ($11,200) a month received by a public accountant and auditor, while a human resources assistant earns 3,372,536 ($6,300). ”
Added to these monthly stipends are other benefits such as “… annuities of 3.56%, 30 days of vacation, 24 year severance and bonuses for redundancy, zoning, and sick leave.”
Data released by the legislator confirmed what is common knowledge in Costa Rica: wages paid by the state are double those paid by the private sector for the same job profiles.
This economically unsound policy feeds the predilection of Costa Rican university students, who “dream of being public servants” , because in addition to privileged wages, they enjoy job security practically for life.
On top of this the Costa Rican Electricity Institute is in the public pillory over disclosed information relating to its financial statements for the previous financial period, which include losses of tens of millions of dollars in its own operations and those of its subsidiaries, losses of hundreds of thousands of cell phone customers, as well as details of other ruinous business deals.
Its enough to see the package of austerity measures that Greece has to take on in order to get over the catastrophic crisis that it finds itself in, as a warning of the similarities with the route being taken by Costa Rica.
Source: prensalibre.cr
Costa Rica: Economy Continues to Lose Strength
With a meager 1.1% growth in economic activity in April, there has now been a total of thirteen consecutive months of economic slowdown.
From a statement issued by the Central Bank of Costa Rica:
In April 2015, domestic production, measured by the numerical trends in the Monthly Economic Activity Index (IMAE), showed a variation of 1.1% (average rate of 1.7%); lower than that observed in the same period last year (4.1%) and than the average rate for 2014 (3.8%). Like the previous month, most industries showed slower growth in productivity and, in particular, manufacturing and agriculture, with a combined weight of 36.2% in the general index, posted declines of 3.3% and 3 , 0%, respectively. To a lesser extent, there was a drop in production of electricity and water (with a weight of 3.0%), which had performed positively the previous year.
Additionally, the service industry is growing but doing so at a slower pace. On the other hand, construction activity registered an acceleration compared to the first quarter of 2014, which eased the behavior described above.
See full report here.