Director of Conaf reveals that he had no funds to pay the taxes of his officials

Space was donated to the Senate. It was the first meeting of the United Commissions for Agriculture and the Environment, with the help of the ministers of both portfolios, to agree on how to harmonize two bills: the one that creates the Service of Biodiversity and the one that transforms the National Forestry Corporation (Conaf) into a public service

Ah, the director of Conaf, Jos Manuel Rebolledo, who badumed his functions there is four months, revealed the conditions he faces in his management because of lack of resources. "We received the Conaf with a deficit of 27.400 million dollars, which represents 30% of the total budget," he warned, which has not changed so far.

He adds: "In May, I had to sign a document in which we had to declare the taxes (of the workers), because we had no funds to pay them."

Rebolledo explained that Conaf moves with an annual budget of $ 90 billion, and that only in the last two fire seasons have been spent $ 53 thousand, although they are not allowed more than $ 30 billion dollars. This requires recourse to the Ministry of the Interior and then a surrender.

In the fire program, I described that there was no equipment inventory to know what is needed and what is necessary. planes, two of which are corduroy, and if we had the resources, which we did not have, they could be repaired by the end of January of next year ", he said. As explained, this had already been detected by the controller last year, when the big fire of 2017 occurred (597 thousand hectares were burned), and they are the same planes that are still being held.

One of them is a Sokol Polish helicopter, whose spare parts must be ordered in a special way, after payment, as they are discontinued. "We run a business we do not know," he said. And explained that the costs, it is 2.3 times more expensive than to engage this same service with more modern aircraft.

"In the case of the helicopter, we pay 4.6 times more than if we had contracted the service to third parties. say, we throw money that we do not have, "warned the director of Conaf.Therefore, I added, we badyze if it makes sense to stay homeowners of seven of the 39 aircraft that have been used in the last three seasons.

"18% of planes (used in the fight against fire) are Conaf property, it means hiring pilots while throughout the year, specialized mechanics all year round, sheds, today, a cost that we can not continue to bear, "he says

. in expenses incurred by fires, and had to badume payments of $ 7.200 million in compensation for workers who have retired.

El Snaspe

Although parliamentarians praised Conaf's task in the National System of Protected Wild Areas (Snaspe), the director of the agency did a rough badysis of the tight budget allotted to him .

The 14.7 million hectares of 101 areas (national parks, reserves and natural monuments) have $ 17. billion a year. Meanwhile, the Santiago Metropolitan Park is managed with $ 30 billion for 750 hectares, said Rebolledo.

Seal that private partners will have to be found on the road to strengthen the infrastructure in these areas. In addition, with regard to Snaspe's staff, Conaf is working with 450 park rangers and, according to one study, an additional 1,500 people and another 400 people are needed for the administration. "Today, our park wardens are dedicated to cleaning," he said.

The future of Snaspe was a settled debate in the House (which left it to Conaf), but now reopened in the Senate, after the decision to transfer all protected areas when creating the Service of biodiversity, which depends on the Ministry of the Environment. The government has given the deadline until July 30 to send an indication on the subject to the project that creates the public or the National Forest Service (see box).

$ 7,200
million in workers' compensation "1945-19006