Following the directives and decrees of the presidency regarding cost containment due to the fiscal crisis in Costa Rica, the Municipal Consulting and Development Institute (IFAM) will have savings estimated to be close to $293 thousand dollars for the remaining of this year.

By implementing Directive 003-H, streamlining the use of public resources, the institution will save close to $228 thousand by reducing the share assigned to transportation in and out of the country, overtime payments, publicity and marketing, hiring of professional services and formal activities.

When it comes to salary pluses such as full-time contracts, the savings for the rest of 2018 represent approximately $63 thousand.

“These are the first regulations implemented, but not the only ones”, said Marcela Guerrero, Executive President of IFAM, “we are currently elaborating a comprehensive analysis of the budget of the entire organization with the purpose of detecting unnecessary recruitments or that can be terminated or third-party services that we can handle internally”, explained Guerrero.

Some of the measures establishes by the Presidency had already been implemented by IFAM during the restructuring it underwent in January 2017, which eliminated salary pluses for achievements, five-year term and prohibition; five salary scales were replaced by a unique one, and the annual payments went from a percentage to a nominal amount established according to the evaluation and performance of each employee.

The rest of the decrees or directives do not apply to IFAM since they do not have a ‘Collective Convention’ (an agreement celebrated between one or several worker unions and their employers to regulate the conditions under which the work will be given, and all aspects related to the same) and the salary of the CEO is under the established limit.