Oh, Those Greedy Bureaucrats!
by Rod Hughes
As of January, Pedro Pablo Quiros, president of the government monopoly in telecommunications and electric generation, ICE, is making about a third more than President Oscar Arias, reported the newspaper Al Dia this morning. Worse for the electricity consumers, the board of directors voted salary hikes of 20% to 40% for the top tier of management.
Explained Quiros blandly to an Al Dia reporter, “Ït appeared to us that our (top executives) were being paid less than the marketplace…and we could lose people who work for ICE.” Of course, he did not mention that these steep hikes apply only to the head honchos, a dramatic lesson in what happens when you let people set their own salaries, whether they are congresspersons or executives.
But even Quiros’s salary is eclipsed by that of Hernan Medford, the head coach of the Costa Rican All Star soccer team. But, then, all ICE does is keep us on the Internet and generate electricity for the entire country while Medford guides a SOCCER team!