23 months into his presidential mandate and the list of scandals and resignations of high-level officials that has hit the administration of Juan Carlos Varela is long and growing. Regrettably, though, apparently not long enough to persuade President Varela of the urgent necessity of making changes to his cabinet.
Following the departure of over a dozen high level officials, experts agree that the ensuing institutional paralysis this has caused has left the country in a constitutional vacuum. Many agree that President Varela would be better served exercising great care in the selection of candidates for ministerial posts.
According to former vice president Arturo Vallarino, President Varela has developed a custom of waiting way too long before getting rid of under-performing officials: the President has been seen to act only when succumbing to the pressure of public opinion, only to take too long to name replacements.
The President has defended himself by arguing that he has launched relevant searches for candidates following ministerial resignations, only to see his offers turned down by the people he has approached. This is the case for at least three high level positions in the judicial organ, for the head of the Security Ministry as well as for the National Secretariat for Childhood, Adolescence and Family (Seniaf).
In the judicial organ, the president has to date been unable to name deputies of two justices appointed last January, Cecilio Cedalise and Angela Russo. Instead, he has chosen to wait until the next legislative session of the national assembly in order to fill those positions.
President Varela has also failed to find a replacement for former magistrate Alejando Moncada Luna, who left the Supreme Court over a year ago, having been declared guilty of wrongdoing in February 2015.
Such paralysis has led to many across civic society to question whether President Varela actually meant what he said during his election campaign. According to Carlos Lee, representative of the Citizens Alliance, “the president's manifesto included Pact of for Justice that entailed public consultation aimed at true judicial reform”. As it happens, precious public consultation has taken place and high-level posts remain unfilled.
“The president has shown no courage to fire under-performing ministers”, says former vice president Arturo Vallarino, adding that the vacuum at the top of the security ministry is particularly worrying, considering the security situation the country currently faces.
The reins of the security ministry are at present in the hands of the deputy minister, whose military background has raised many eyebrows across the political spectrum. “The management of the public administration definitely leaves a lot to be desired at present”, Mr. Vallarino remarked.
A glaring example of this is the way in which ministers who have resigned go on to remain in their posts for up to 15 days following the resignation announcement. This has happened at the Security Ministry as well as at the Secretariat for Childhood, Adolescence and Family.
According to constitutional lawyer Miguel Antonio Bernal, “this goes to show the manifest inability of the head of state when it comes to replacing ineffective officials and avoiding an administrative vacuum”.
Mr. Bernal went on to explain that “although the law allows for the outgoing official to maintain their position with full benefits until a replacement is found, this kind of situation create resentment amongst population, since outgoing officials who have been seen as unfit for their role keep being paid, and often take their eyes off the ball too”.
