Financial Diary – Santiago
The Minister of Finance, Jorge Quiroz, made a self-criticism for the way in which the government communicated the spending cuts that it seeks to implement both for this year and for the 2027 Budget, lor that generated strong controversy by questioning the continuity of programs such as school feeding or the Universal Guaranteed Pension (PGU).
In an interview with TVN, the Secretary of State stated that it was not thought, when preparing the controversial letter in which he instructed the cuts, that this document would be made public, Therefore, it was necessary to explain in a better way that “discontinuing” did not mean eliminating public initiatives, but to change the way certain programs were being executed.
“If one reads that letter – which is short, it is two or three pages – it says on two occasions that the base budget of each ministry has to respect the laws and existing contractual commitments. So, the truth is that it was a topic that I considered rather trivial, it was not the first letter we sent.”he assured, along with adding that “a little skill was lacking when the job was written.”
“There was an error, the trade had a trade error, the trade was missing. What trade was missing? Imagine that the office was going to be public“explained the economist.
“ANDOr I think it’s a week where we clearly had to go out and explain things better. Maybe there is a flaw there in not having explained better, but the north does not change. Expenditures are out of control and that confirms the absolute need to rationalize public spending,” the authority said.
Given this, he reinforced that social policies will not be touched: “We have said repeatedly that the social issue is not touched on, which does not mean that we do not have to look for efficiency and there are many spaces for it.. And also attack abuses that we have been attacking with considerable success. So this issue is complex, but the north is not lost and we are going to solve it step by step. The goal is to regain control of public spending and take careful care of the public treasury,” emphasized the Minister of Finance.
Regarding the PGU, The Secretary of State stressed that “one thing is the law (that created the PGU) and another thing is how the law is being applied.”“.
Thus, he exemplified that the law establishes that foreigners who have been in the country for more than 20 years can apply for the PGU, but he questioned how this is accredited. “I’m not saying it’s wrong, what I’m saying is that these jobs call for us to examine how things are being done.“he emphasized.
“Looking at it now, perhaps the 15% (cut to the PGU budget) should not have been put in the table and it should have been revised.. Now, when one reviews, there is always a dialogue with the ministers, and no minister likes to cut his budget,” he concluded.
Differences with ministers
Quiroz was also consulted about the criticism that has arisen over the work of the head of the Second Floor of La MonedaAlejandro Irarrázaval, who is blamed for the error of not warning that the language used in the cuts could generate a political crisis in the government.
Given this, Quiroz pointed out that it is a “myth” when it is stated that the Second Floor has so much power to influence the ministries.
THe also rejected the idea that there are “two souls” in the governmentpointing out that he has a good relationship with his counterparts from the Interior, Claudio Alvarado, and from the General Secretariat of the Presidency (Segpres), José García.
“I have an excellent interaction with the Alvarado ministersMinister García Ruminot. Excellent, excellent, excellent. “We make a very good team,” he said.
