• The municipality of Carrillo defends waste management.
• 'Catargua' accused of only defending one sector.
A misinterpretation of information and lack of depth in the investigations arc the main reasons Guanacastecan municipalities attributed to the data on municipal failure, revealed the Guanacastecan Tourism Chamber. The report accuses the municipalities of Carrillo, Liberia.
Santa Cruz and Nicoya only having invested a 16.33%, 2244%, 36.30% and 27.53% respectively of their budgets, despite urgent work matters such as the daily management of solid waste generated in the province that represents 1.5 and 2 kilos per capita.
The data was gathered by 'Caturgua' in a recent municipal budget performance report issued by the General Accounting Office (CRG), which showed low levels of investment in these cantons.
According to the report, municipalities with the highest budgets for investment in the province are Carrillo (0 4990.7 million) and Liberia (0 3913 million), having executed in June 2008 only 0 815.1 million and 893.7 0 million respectively, which represents only 16.33% of the total budgeted investment for Carrillo and 22.84% for Liberia.
However, the Mayor of Carrillo, Carlos Cantillo said Caturgua is uninformed and only ensures the interests of one sector.
In reality this data is not properly adjusted and in the case of Carrillo, the annual budget is 2,650 million colones, not 4,000 million as stated in the document; further more in the first half we executed 900 million , representing 36% of resources, and the Chamber talks of a special funded budget raised to finance the problem of rainwater in Sardinal, said Cantillo.
Apart from improvements to the road network, responsibility of the municipalities CATURGUA, spokesmen pointed out that the problems of collection and processing of solid waste across the province can not be delayed further.
The management of solid waste is a problem that has gone from being urgent to becoming a time bomb that can explode, having very serious safety consequences for the entire production sector and especially for the tourism industry," said Mauricio Céspedes, executive director of the chamber.
In this regard Cantillo said that the canton is working with Liberia in a joint project since the capital of Guanacaste can't handle the volume of garbage by itself, therefore not being able finance the landfill project.
In our particular case we have hired a person who handles the environmental issue in the municipality, including within his duties is the waste management problem," stressed Cantillo.
For his part, the mayor of Liberia Carlos Marin said that data issued by the Comptroller is not correct, and that the municipality has executed more than that suggested in the report. In addition to arrangements in the road network, the rainy season was expected to finish before the project can begin.
The city council of Santa Cruz is the one that stands out with the highest percentage of execution, with a disbursement of 0 1453.8 billion, equivalent to 36.30% from a budget of 0 4005.2 billion.
