The national budget for 2017, close to 8,9 billions colones, was approved without being voted by the legislators in an extraordinary session on November 27th.
The legislators enabled the session because they had until that day to vote the draft cost plan in first reading.
But when the session started, the bill, issued by the Congress Finance Committee on October 20th, was automatically approved.
Of 57 legislators, there were only 35 in the plenary when the minimum quorum for meeting (38 members) was broken.
The draft budget introduces cuts for 22 billion colones in expenses that are considered superfluous.
It also reallocated 47 billion colones from the resources of the National Children’s Patronage (PANI) to the Ministry of Public Security and the Judicial Investigation Agency (OIJ).
However, president of the Legislative Assembly Antonio Álvarez indicated that the PANI will not be affected because if it needed more resources, it can be restored through extraordinary budgets.
The project will receive a second reading on November 29th.