The transparent organization of Venezuela has announced that the 2023 National Budget will be centralized in the executive branch, which highlights the lack of independence of the country’s public institutions.
“The provisions of 2023 for their insufficiency, maldistribution and the need to borrow for projects for which there is no or undisclosed data on the physical and financial progress”, Transparencia Venezuela warned in the conclusions of the analysis.
“The provisions also do not address the plan to recover basic services, so necessary for the country, which leaves a clear message that this is not a priority for the government,” added the civil association.
The study shows that the approved budget is lower than in previous years: 9,765,665,449 dollars which, transparency explains, is sufficient to cover the expenses, so, as is usually the case, the government approves credit indifferently without further information about the origin of the funds, spending the objectives; objectives, etc.
“In real terms, that is, without taking into account the effects of inflation, the approved policies have decreased a lot. This contractionary policy has resulted in the decline of wages and salaries, basic services and the contempt of public pensions,” says the analysis.
Compared to 2022, this year has been approved 27.43% less, in the context of a strong devaluation of the bolivar against the dollar, which implies that, if the trend is not reversed, “dollar reserves will continue to decrease”.
The report clarifies the percentage that Effect will receive from the budget: 97.48%, the other powers will receive amounts below 2%. Electoral power will be given to 0.16%, legislative power, 0.12%; Judiciary, 1.42%; Citizen Power, 0.33%
The distribution by social sectors will be: health, 7.44%, protection and social security, 7.82%; education, 24.33%, and housing, 0.41%.
On the topic of education, which is protesting in the context of the teacher, the government approved barely 0.11% of the budget for UCV. “Therefore, the financial approval for independent, experimental and non-governmental polytechnic universities is lower than for universities created by the government.”
For Transparency Venezuela, the analysis concludes, it is necessary to carry out the budget according to the reality that Venezuela lives: “In itself, it establishes a level of fiscal discipline, so as to build confidence that attracts investment and growing the economy with stable prices.”.
