Costa Rica News – This pretty much wraps up Costa Rican problems in a nut shell when it comes to governmental corruption, wasting money, and the inefficient legal system. We report fro time to time on Costa Rican police officers being suspended with pay, usually for getting caught taking bribes.
Do you ever wonder how much money is being wasted on these paid suspensions each year in Costa Rica?
The Security Ministry disburses more than ¢ 230 million (about $460,000) annually to pay police salaries to stay at home waiting for the institution to punish or absolve them for disciplinary reasons.
There are currently 62 members of the police and three police chiefs suspended with pay.
This involves an expenditure of almost ¢ 18 million (about $36,000) per month. It is estimated that each of the police earn the base salary of ¢ 260,000 ($520) and the chiefs ¢ 580,000 ($1,160).
The minister, Mario Zamora, believes the resolution of each disciplinary takes on average a year. However, he stressed that the goal is that sanctions be ruled upon in three months.
In order to accomplish this, the Ministry will hire 15 additional staff to 17 employees in the Legal Disciplinary Department, the agency in charge of studying more than 2,000 records on faults that remain pending.
So like always instead of implementing change that would fix the problems the government decides to throw even more money at it.
The problems:
1. Police Officers on average are making $520 a month…..ever wonder why they try to supplement their income by taking bribes?
2. The court system and disciplinary system is inefficient. The fact that cases are being held up over a year while the the officer collects pay is ridiculous.
The solutions:
1. Increase the pay of police officers and make it harder to become an officer. Hold them to the highest standards and make it a position of pride.
2. If you are an officer and you are accused of wrong doing you are either fired or suspended without pay until the court makes a judgement on your case. If you are found innocent then you can receive back pay. Do not allow them to collect each month if they are in the legal process.
3. Fix the legal system. Make it steam lined. This will not only decrease these officers criminal acts but it will decrease criminal acts in general. Look at the USA, because the system is quite efficient it deters people from committing crimes.
