THE country’s 81 municipalities willreceive funds they are due for much neededroad repairs, thanks to a decisionby the Constitutional Chamber of theSupreme Court (Sala IV).The court found that the FinanceMinistry has neglected to turn over thefunds, which are collected through a specialgasoline tax. The tax has a specificdestination for road repair and neither theFinance Ministry nor the LegislativeAssembly have the right to change thedestination in creating the national budget,according to the court ruling.The decision came as a result of acase filed by the mayors of municipalitiesthroughout the country.The Finance Ministry could not say atpress time how much money will beturned over in total. The funds will benefitthe country’s 28,500 kilometers of roads.In related news, the Ministry ofPublic Works and Transport (MOPT) lastweek announced a pilot plan to repave200 meters of streets in each of sixmunicipalities in Guanacaste with cementbricks. MOPT will provide 15,600 sacksof cement the municipalities will use tomake the cement bricks.
