Justice and Peace delegates the signing of acts to Vice Minister Rodríguez

The Minister of Justice and Peace, Gabriel Aguilar Vargas, delegated to the Vice Minister of Strategic Management, Sandra Rodríguez Chaves, the signing of appointment agreements, reduced bidding procedures, the decommissioning and acquisition of assets, and the transfer of budget allocations of that portfolio. The decision is contained in agreement RMJP-0966-10-2026, published in La Gaceta No. 200 on Thursday, October 22, 2026 (reference IN202601134105), and will remain in effect until May 7, 2030, inclusive.

The agreement is issued based on articles 11 and 129 of the Political Constitution, article 7 of the Civil Code, articles 89 to 92 and 101 to 103 of the General Law of Public Administration, Law No. 6227, article 106 of the Law of Financial Administration of the Republic and Public Budgets, Law No. 8131, and the General Law of Public Procurement, Law No. 9986. Aguilar Vargas was appointed minister by Executive Agreement No. 001-P of May 8, 2026, published in Digital Supplement No. 53 of La Gaceta No. 84 of May 11, 2026; Rodríguez Chaves was appointed vice minister by Agreement No. 003-P of May 8, 2026, published in Digital Supplement No. 54 of La Gaceta No. 85 of May 12, 2026.

The head of the ministry justified the measure based on the volume of documentation whose effectiveness depends on his signature, which “could largely cause unnecessary delays.” The agreement invokes ruling PGR-C-167-2022 of August 11, 2022, and Legal Opinion OJ-050-97 of September 29, 1997, from the Attorney General’s Office, according to which the delegation of signature does not transfer competencies and the delegator remains the sole person responsible for the act.

Human resources, assets, and budget

Article 1 of the agreement details the acts that the Vice Minister of Strategic Management will henceforth sign:

• Appointment agreements for personnel of budget programs 786 (Central Activities), 787, 789, 790, 791 (State Defense and Legal Assistance to the Public Sector), 793 (Prevention, Detection and Combat of Corruption) and 794 (National Registry).
• Internal competitions, interim and permanent appointments, promotions, position list resolutions, accumulation of vacations, transfers of officials, personnel actions, labor contracts, exclusive dedication, training and availability contracts, ad honorem appointments, secondments, licenses and permits with and without pay.
• Human resources procedures before the Budgetary Authority and the National Budget, as well as permits for union or solidarist assemblies.
• Procedures, resolutions and acts to decommission and register assets, receive donations, transfer patrimonial assets between institutions and submit the annual general inventory report.
• Requests for the transfer of ordinary and extraordinary budget lines before the General Directorate of the National Budget and all budgetary procedures before the Ministry of Finance.

Reduced procurement, agreements and other management

Regarding public procurement, the delegation covers the initial decision of ordinary reduced bidding procedures for programs 788, 791, 793, 794, 795, 798 and 799, the signing of its processing acts, the resolutions of the sanctioning regime derived from those procedures and the consultations and complaints before the Public Procurement Directorate of the Ministry of Finance, the Comptroller General of the Republic or the Commission for Promoting Competition.

The agreement also transfers the signing of travel agreements, conventions, addenda, letters of understanding and non-reimbursable cooperation instruments; the approval of procedure manuals; insurance procedures and claims before the National Insurance Institute; management before the Technical Secretariat of the Budgetary Authority; sanctioning administrative procedures, including dismissals and preliminary investigations; and routine documents of the Sectoral Council for Citizen Security and Justice.

Matters reserved for the minister and validity

Expressly excluded from the delegation are major bidding procedures, minor bidding, special urgency procedures and those excepted from ordinary ones, as well as the initial decision, final acts, awards, declarations of void or unsuccessful, revocations, re-awards, annulments, resolution of appeals, modifications to the specifications, suspensions and declarations of expiration. Regarding public procurement, programs 786, 787, 789 and 790 and the Institutional Procurement Office are also excluded, which will have separate regulation.

Article 2 requires that each document state that it is solely a delegation of signature and not a transfer of competencies. Article 3 nullifies agreement AMJP-143-05-2026 and resolution RMJP0588-05-2026, both published in Supplement No. 64 of La Gaceta No. 97 on May 28, 2026, and Article 4 establishes its validity from the date of publication until May 7, 2030, inclusive.

The change redefines who signs the daily human resources and procurement acts of a portfolio that encompasses the penitentiary system, the National Registry, the Attorney General’s Office, and the National System for the Promotion of Social Peace. With the delegation, the ministry’s appointments and reduced tenders no longer depend on the minister’s schedule and will be signed by the Vice Minister of Strategic Management for the next three and a half years, although the legal responsibility for each act continues to rest with Aguilar Vargas.

Source: La Gaceta, No. 200 of Thursday, October 22, 2026, Executive Branch Agreements, pp. 4-7 (official reference: RMJP-0966-10-2026, IN202601134105).