by Rod Hughes

The Arias Administration has fired National Production Council (CNP) CEO Guido Vega for having rushed through 21 projects, valued at 21 billion colones (at 475 colones per dollar) at the last minute before this function passed from CNP hands. The Comptroller General’s Office blew the whistle on 18 of them for violations of legal procedure.

On April 10, a Legislative Assembly bill creating the Devekopment Bank System passed into law, removing this function from CNP. On that day, CNP rushed through the projects benefitting cooperatives, farming, cattle and dairy operations while it still had the funds. Only three of those projects met legal standards.

Last week, Vega admitted that he was responding to pressure from interested parties who feared delays if the projects passed into a new system of financing, according to the national newspaper, La Nacion. Both Vega and Deputy Minister of Agriculture Carlos Villalobos were parties to the approvals but Villalobos remains in his post but must appear before the Legislative Assembly tomorrow to answer uncomfortable questions about the matter put to him by some upset lawmakers.