The Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE) seeks to exit the financial well to avoid its privatization. Irene Cañas, president of the state company, presented in the last days the Strategy 4.0, with the path to take in the period 2019-2023. She delineated five action points: ensure stability and sustainability; go towards the evolution of business and improve the customer experience; reach operational efficiency through modernization and digital transformation; find the effectiveness of human talent; and promote equity and sustainability.

The plan was criticized for having been exposed confidentially and for not presenting actual numbers that support it. However, the president of Costa Rica, Carlos Alvarado, announced his participation in Strategy 4.0 and was optimistic: "I have a lot of confidence, it has been a team effort. A series of solutions will be proposed that do not go through increasing rates. That is not going to be the route, because we are in a context of reactivation and what we are looking for is to restructure the debt".

The alarm regarding the situation of the ICE was ignited last April, when it released the figures of the last five years. The director of the Finance Division of the institution, Jesús Orozco, confirmed that losses during 2018 were US$437 million.

Between 2014 and last year, ICE managed to reach a positive balance only in 2016. The losses of 2018 doubled those of 2014 (US$184.5 million).

According to the official, this situation was reached due to three factors. First, the failure of the Diquis hydroelectric project, which ICE left to die after keeping it on the agenda for a decade and spending US$146 million on it. Second, the exchange rate fluctuations that affected the economy of the ICE, since 77% of its debt is in US dollars. The third factor is due to the purchase of electricity generation from private companies.

To this it was added the lack of general confidence in ICE, a company that is constantly questioning its transparency. In May this year she was reluctant to publicize the salaries of its managers and directors, in line with the limited information revealed on the Strategy 4.0 plan. Irene Cañas argued that they can not detail the figures of the latter because it could be counterproductive with the commercial strategy of the telecommunications business.

Faced with this lack of information, representatives Erwen Masis, of the Political Party Partido Unidad Social Cristiana, and Jonathan Prendas, of the independent bloc Nueva República, requested the ICE to report to the Legislative Assembly and the General Comptroller. At the same time, the legislators seek to limit the confidentiality of ICE with a bill, given that, as they maintain, the company has protected itself in secrecy to commit illicit acts.