by Rod Hughes

The Arias Administration has had to step in to call for–and obtain–the resignations of all the directors of the Social Protection Board (JPS) after four weeks of internal squabbling prevented disbursement of funds to major charities in the nation. JPS has a monopoly on lotteries here and distributes the earnings to hospitals, senior citizens’ homes and the like.

The feud that developed between JPS chairperson Celina Gonzalez and eight of the 10 board members over her conduct of the meetings completely froze the institution’s workings and resulted in Minister of the Presidency Rodrigo Arias meeting personally with the troubled board. Such a drastic step as calling for an autonomous institution’s board to resign is, if not unprecedented, extremely rare and, after hearing all sides of the deadlock, the top cabinet minister took it reluctantly.

But the board has been seething with a series of stressful incidents since 2006, reported the daily paper La Nacion. Throughout much of that year and all of 2007, the board wasted much time trying to fire General Manager Luis Polinaris who finally went to the Supreme Court’s Contsitutional Chamber to avoid departing. In April of this year, Board Chairman Sergio Ramirez resigned as chairman after demanding a salary, although the conditions under which he was named specified that the post was strictly honorary. That same month, two other board members resigned in the wake of more squabbling.

In July, Polinaris was finally fired after the court turned down his appeal. But Minister Arias wants his recent successor, Francisco Gonzalez, to step down as well, citing suspected irregularities in the manner he was named. According to Arias, Gonzalez is due to present his resignation today. Arias said he expects a cabinet session to name a whole new board next month, in order that JPS can get some work done.