Mario Duran’s first day as mayor of San Salvador: $ 22 million debt and 50 layoffs

The first day of work for the new San Salvador Municipal Council for the period 2021-2024, this May 1, 2021, the two main issues that were already with Mario Duran, the head of the country’s mayor’s office, were budget and garbage.

“They left us a mayor’s office in a bad state, with millionaire debts and no money for staff and suppliers,” said Durran, a man of confidence in former Interior Minister and President Naib Bukel.

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In a conversation with the media, the new mayor for new ideas said they had not arranged any formal action for his inauguration because “this is an unnecessary act, especially in the circumstances” finance, and the outgoing mayor, Ernesto Mueshond of Arena.

“To illustrate this, to date, the employees of the San Salvador Mayor’s office have not been paid, they have not been paid the previous month. As you know, municipal employees have several months’ worth of benefits, a debt of up to $ 8 million.

According to the financial panorama, one of the first steps the capital city council took yesterday was to approve three loans, valued at $ 22 million.

Hector Silva Hernandez of Neustro Timebo for 2021-2024 and Councilor for the Office of Mayor of San Salvador.
Photo EDH / Archive

Hector Silva Hernandez, a member of the Nuestro Tympo party and a councilor, explained that the amount was divided into two loans of $ 4 million and $ 16 million. The first two “will be paid for withholding employer fees that the previous administration had illegally withheld. This includes not only social security, AFP and treasury suspension and employer fees, but also home loans and employee vehicles. ”

The case is already in the hands of the judiciary, and Silva Hernandez noted that “it is illegal to serve four to eight years in prison.”

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Commenting on the funding of 16 16million, the councilor explained, “Almost no payments to suppliers for the nearly 11 million suppliers, but no payments to the company where Mercado Cascatlin was contracted or to the lighting company that bought it. Buckell deal when he was mayor. I would not have voted for it. They are payments to medium, micro and small entrepreneurs who provided services to the mayor’s office in the previous administration and were never paid. ”

Mayor Duran regretted that, contrary to what the accounting court noted, the outgoing administration did not contact the establishment of an alternative committee for the arrival of new communal officials.

“Unfortunately there are layoffs. We are talking about more than 50 people and they have canceled appointments,” the party’s councilor for San Salvador confirmed. ENARENAOFICIAL, alsurianoh.

Via: Louis 33 TV # Teleprenza33 pic.twitter.com/MytNRVBmsx

– Teleprensa (@ Teleprensa33) May 1, 2021

For his part, Councilor Alexander Suriano of Arena told Channel 33 that “unfortunately there are layoffs, more than 50 people have had their appointments canceled, and they have not been approved for a voluntary retirement”; They asked Mayor Duran and his team to reconsider the situation because “they are families without income.”

Garbage challenge

Unilaterally and without consultation with the municipal council, Mayor Duran managed the support of the Ministry of Public Works, Penitentiary Centers and the Armed Forces, and the mayor’s office has been involved in solid waste collection in the city since yesterday to strengthen the mayor’s office.

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He promised that in “72 hours” they would clean up San Salvador of rubbish, which will end on Monday, according to municipal data. With the aim of disposing of about 4,500 tons of garbage.

Since the last days of April 2021 the streets, surroundings and roads of the capital have been littered with rubbish in various districts of San Salvador. / Photo courtesy: Twitter Astrom

Outgoing mayor Mushond stressed that he had occupied the municipal unions to prevent waste during the election campaign, and recently criticized on Twitter for “blocking garbage collection for a week, using garbage trucks to block the streets and creating chaos, harming people. This is how they prepare the city for the ‘elected’ mayor, garbage minister, Astram and Mites to come out as heroes with a cleanup day over the weekend. ”

In addition to garbage collection, Duran said it will strengthen road paving and urgent cleaning of rocks and streams before the immediate arrival of the rainy season.