Caribbean & Central America - December 2016 (ISSN 1741-4458)

With just one day to go before the 30 November constitutional deadline, Guatemala’s 158-member unicameral legislature approved the 2017 State budget for Q$77.31bn (US$10.29bn), with 115 votes in favour. As in previous years, local think tanks and civil-society groups have raised transparency-related concerns.

The 2017 budget is up from the Q$70.96bn (US$9.41bn) approved for 2016 and includes increases for key ministries such as education and health where the main teachers’ union, the Sindicato de Trabajadores de la Educación en Guatemala (Steg), and health-sector officials grouped in the Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores de la Salud de Guatemala (SNTSG) staged unrest earlier in the year, calling for increased spending. Under the new budget, education will receive Q$13.94bn (US$1.86bn), up from Q$12.89bn (US$1.72bn) in 2016, while health has been allocated Q$6.90bn (US$918.40m), up from Q$5.53bn (US$736.06m). The interior ministry will receive Q$5.47bn (US$728.02m), up from Q$4.47bn (US$594m) while the defence budget will be Q$1.91bn (US$254.23m), down from last year’s Q$2.06bn (US$274m).

A statement released on 30 November by local think tank Instituto Centroamericano de Estudios Fiscales (Icefi) hails the fact that 16 amendments which would have further weakened transparency were rejected. The amendments in question would have removed fiscal transparency controls and included allocations to benefit dubious NGOs as well as companies linked to national legislators. In its press release, Icefi also welcomed the approval of amendments such as the allocation of Q$300m to the national electrification institute in order to fund social tariffs and Q$20m to the labour ministry to support centres of attention for the elderly.

However, Icefi also flags up transparency-related concerns. These include the approval of an amendment which transfers responsibility for execution of works carried out by departmental development councils (Codedes) from departmental governors to mayors. The Icefi statement notes that while Codedes have been accused of corruption and fiscal opacity, the transfer of responsibilities to mayors fails to tackle this problem as they too have faced similar complaints along with accusations of “systematic violations to the Law on Access to Public Information”. Icefi also criticises hermeticism surrounding the approval of special allocations such as Q$30m in spending for the communications, infrastructure and housing ministry (see sidebar) and the transfer of Q$11m for the institute for assistance and attention to victims of crime.

• A dubious portfolio

Guatemala’s communications, infrastructure & housing ministry has been the subject of long-running corruption concerns associated with the awarding of lucrative contracts. The decision to increase the allocation in the 2017 State budget from Q$3.63bn (US$482m) in 2016 to Q$4.10bn (US$544m) is likely to arouse suspicion from government critics.