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Blind
Struggle Against Poverty
The Government of Costa Rica
does not know how many poor
families there are, where they
live nor what they need to
survive.
It does not have records of the
people who have benefited with
housing aids, scholarships, aid
to the elderly, or programs for
women who head households. The
electronic system for recording,
qualifying, and selecting
potential beneficiaries of
social programs failed.
The Pacheco Administration
failed to fully expand the
Objective Population Information
System (SIPO in Spanish)
considered basic for its
eradication of poverty program.
The General Comptrollership of
the Republic disclosed these
facts and pointed out that the
absence of the SIPO accounts to
a great extent for the
duplication of efforts, the lack
of coordination among
institutions, and multiple
criteria and methods to
establish the different levels
of poverty.
The Comptrollership demanded the
prompt completion of the SIPO,
but it will be up to the coming
administration, starting next
May 8, to start from scratch
regarding the basic information
to help about 20 percent of the
population of Costa Rica who are
defined as "poor".
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