The President of Costa Rica, Carlos Alvarado and the Minister of Treasury, Rocio Aguilar, signed, on May 30, an order to reduce the salaries of the general managers of the public banks, as well as the manager of Banco Popular.

However, on June 4, the Board of Directors of Banco Popular named Juan Francisco Rodriguez as sub-general manager of the bank for a period of 5 years starting June 5, without a discussion or voting regarding his salary amount.

The directive given by President Alvarado established that the boards of directors of these banking institutions (Banco Nacional and Banco de Costa Rica as well as Banco Popular), should adjust the salary of their general managers to match that of the general manager of the Central Bank of Costa Rica, which is close to U.S. $16,888.58; currently the managers of Banco Nacional, Banco de Costa Rica and Banco Popular are earning between U.S. $25,134.00 (¢14.2 million) and U.S. $29,559.00 (¢16.7 million) a month.

The measure was taken by the government as part of the contention and expense reduction measures that the Executive Branch is promoting.

Rodriguez’ salary was set to $22,250.00 a month; disregarding, therefore, the order given by the President and the Minister of Treasury.

Banco Popular also named its new General Manager, Marvin Rodriguez with a higher salary that the one established in the directive, however, his naming was carried out on May 24, six days before the order was signed and therefore it is not affected by the same. His salary is of U.S. $29,136.50

“The government is respectful of the autonomy of each of these public entities; however, as Executive Branch we are responsible for the efficient use of public resources, and under this capacity we instruct the representatives of the Executive branch in the Board of Directors of Banco Popular to adequate the salary of its managerial positions according to what was established in directive 011-H; the instruction given was omitted and in consequence we decided to open the respective disciplinary process and suspend three directors”, commented Alvarado.

The directors suspended are: Lorena Altamirano, Paola Chavarria and Juan Carlos Zúñiga.

“The suspensions set a precedent. The directives are meant to be respected”, commented Alvarado.