San Juan, .- The mayoress of Ponce, in the south of Puerto Rico, Maria Melendez, said today that her municipality is up to date in the disbursement of funds for employee retentions and was surprised by the communication from the Board of Fiscal Supervision (JSF) for the island.
“That in the game of apportioning blame for the cuts to the pensions that they propose to do, do not come to involve the municipalities, they are misleading the people, withholdings for Retiro and the ‘Pay Go’ are two different things. that the municipality pays in retentions to employees is up to date, “he said in a statement.
The JSF referred the Puerto Rico Department of Justice and the federal Justice Department to three government entities and eleven municipalities for not transferring the money that holds their employees to their retirement plan, something that the Secretary of Justice, Wanda Vázquez, He said that, if confirmed, it is “unacceptable”.
The executive director of the JSF, Natalie Jaresko, said in a statement released on Wednesday that one of the priorities of the control entity is to keep the pension fund properly funded, which is why the initiative is taken to take the situation before the local and federal Justice once they stopped sending 4.5 million dollars to the retirement accounts of public employees.
“People need to feel confident that they will receive their pension payments,” said Jaresko, “not transferring the money that has already been withheld from the employees’ check to their retirement accounts is inconceivable and potentially illegal.”
The mayor of Ponce added, meanwhile, that the “Pay Go” is an “imposition of the central government in an attempt to transfer to the municipalities the debt they have with the Retirement System.” An imposition that we have fiercely opposed because the municipalities do not have to assume the errors of the central government “.
“We do not have an unlimited budget like the Junta, which is why the Senate recently presented a measure that is already a law to eliminate that burden on the municipalities, if they go to the project they will see what the reasons are and among them, it highlights that the municipalities They do not have the economic capacity to absorb that debt, the Board opposed the measure, “he recalled.
At the same time, he said he was surprised by the communication from the Board “because if someone is on record with verbal and written requests for them to come and make revisions of our operations, it has been us”.
“After ignoring us for two years, they are now showing further ends in this action, and beyond two brief meetings that we have held with Jaresko, they have not taken into account the municipalities, and they are obviously preparing the ground to impose cuts on Pensions and they want to drag the municipalities into their agenda, Ponce will not be used to enter a war of positions between the central government and the Board on pensions, “he said.
Finally, he indicated that if the JSF wants to cut pensions “that have the courage to say it in front of the people and do not look for third parties to try to redirect their responsibility, they are the ones that are going to cut pensions. is to heal in health and try to distract the attention of the people. ” EFEUSA
