[Politics] Budget Director in the spotlight

[Angel of Death]

The Government has until Friday to present next year's Budget Law and the opposition has already focused on who will present said text: the Budget Director, Javiera Martínez. From Chile Vamos they have not yet fully decided whether or not they are going to condition the budget debate on Martínez's continuity in her position; However – under reservation – they admit that she is in the focus of attention, due to the “instilled suspicion” regarding the Agreements case, particularly for having promoted the change in bureaucratic criteria for the allocation of funds in the Regional Governments. Even though there is no direct link with said case, for the opposition, the head of the Dipres will have to clear up the doubts that circulate around her this Friday. Furthermore, they maintain that the support of Minister Marcel, when he described her as “the best Budget director we have ever had,” now weighs on Martínez, and it is the head of the Treasury himself who is risking her political capital. On Friday, the 2024 Budget Law proposed by the Government will enter Congress and the event places the opposition's spotlight on the Budget Director, Javiera Martínez. The engineer, who is one of the founders of the Democratic Revolution, has been one of the flanks that the right has exploited after the outbreak of the Covenants case and the revelation of a more flexible bureaucracy made in 2023. Although many of the cases investigated were prior to this change in criteria, the opposition insists that the presentation of the budget will be key to determining the offensive against Martínez, although – for now – “it is ruled out,” said the general secretary of the UDI. , María José Hoffmann. On Monday morning, at the UDI headquarters, the party leadership, together with a group of parliamentarians, announced that they had hired a team of lawyers to strengthen parliamentary work in terms of oversight of the proposed Law of Budget, “not only in the Government's priorities but also in the execution of spending,” Hoffmann pointed out.

And the general secretary of the union revealed that "from the UDI there is distrust, mainly in the Budget Directorate (Dipres), due to the events that we have seen", referring to the multiple cases that are investigated in foundations and Regional Governments. The main concern that exists in the opposition falls on Javiera Martínez and the Budget Law that she presents on Friday. Representative Marlene Pérez, from the UDI bench, stated in the same instance that “it is complex to sit down to discuss a Budget Law with a Budget Director who is being questioned and who was the one who opened the key to the Regional Governments, and that from there all the irregularities that we have known until today started.” This is because Martínez was responsible for making the bureaucracy more flexible in direct transfers to foundations to receive money from Regional Governments. However, this information was already clarified in August by the Minister of Finance, Mario Marcel, who explained – in the 'Mesa Central' program on Channel 13 – that these changes “are subsequent to the cases that are being investigated. In other words, one could hardly say that the modifications of the 2023 Budget are responsible for things that happened in 2022.” At that time, Minister Marcel also risked his political capital to support Martínez: “I have known all the Budget directors since the return of democracy, she is probably the best Budget director we have had, due to her knowledge.” , for their dedication and for their honesty. And I want to tell you that that comparison includes all Budget directors, including myself.”

https://www.elmostrador.cl/noticias/pais/2023/09/27/directora-de-presupuestos-en-la-mira/