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Monetary Code passes in Congress The Chamber of Deputies passed the second reading of the Monetary and Financial Code yesterday with a majority vote of 123 votes in favor and four against. The code was passed without any changes from the Senate. The senators eliminated the independence of the Central Bank governor from the Executive Branch. The code will next be presented to the Executive Branch for final approval and publication. |
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What happened to the census? The organizers of the National Census had promised to make preliminary census results known in 30 days. With more than one month having gone by, there is no official word on when this data may be released and El Caribe newspaper says that the National Office of Statistics has not even begun to process the data. There is skepticism as to the accuracy of the results, especially after survey stickers were posted on homes that were not even polled, and thousands of homes were excluded entirely from the process. The census cost taxpayers over RD$200-million to conduct. |
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Deluxe OMSA buses Take a ride on air-conditioned public transport buses. The new OMSA executive service commenced with 114 air-conditioned units, charging RD$10 for each trip. At the end of this month, another 200 vehicles are scheduled to go into service, as reported in the Listin Diario. The buses will cover routes in Santo Domingo and Santiago. 200 air-conditioned buses will also be assigned to the Dominican Olympic Committee for use during the Pan Am Games, and later reassigned to cover bus routes. The government is importing 500 of these buses - an investment of US$33-million, as each bus has a price tag of US$66,000, according to the report. |
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Coming for Xmas: the power fraud squad Dominicans this November will be seeing new hikes in the cost of power, on top of the hefty raises that October power bills brought, thus adding up, in many cases, to increases of up to 300%. But for the December Christmas season many will also be receiving visits from the new electricity police. Press reports say that the so-called electricity fraud patrol program, Programa Nacional de Apoyo a la Eliminacion del Fraude (PAEF), under former chief of the Police, Major General Rafael Guerrero Peralta, is coming to town. The 31-brigade force, created by Decree 743-02 and funded by taxpayers, takes to the streets today to police the operations of the power distributors and improve their collection rates. The force has leads on supposedly 200,000 users that are fraudulently connected to the power supply and who consume an estimated RD$4-billion a year, as reported in Hoy newspaper. There is also indication that one of the most delinquent payers of power service are government offices, however no mention is made of whether government offices are included among the suspected 200,000 users that are not paying what they should. The state is half-owner of the capitalized power distributors, however this is the first time that a private company is to be assisted by the police. Meanwhile, the president of the Senate insists they will include in the bill for the sovereign bond placement requested by the government an additional US$200-million in order to build funds to buy back the Union Fenosa shares. As reported in El Dia, the general manager of Edenorte and Edesur (Union Fenosa), Mario Lopez, said that the companies have a contract for 40 years to operate in the Dominican Republic and are not selling nor leaving. He said the recent blackouts are caused by a production deficit that is not the responsibility of the distributors. Supposedly, the plants are out of service for maintenance reasons. Out-of-service plants account for approximately 40% of the production. An editorial in Hoy newspaper mentions that when the power bills were increased people were promised an end to the blackouts. Instead, consumers have gotten both blackouts and much higher bills, and a very high percentage did not even have their meters read, receiving estimated charges instead. |
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Penalizing distributors for excess billing? According to Julio Cross, Superintendent of Power, the power distributors will be obliged to credit consumers ten times the value of charges in excess. He said that the power distributors – AES Ede Este, Edenorte and Edesur (Union Fenosa) - have already been notified. Article 469 in the ruling recently passed by the government authorizes this penalty. In the Dominican Republic, most consumers do not place claims for overbilling because of obstacles put in their path – such as excessively long waits in the offices of the distributors. Up until now, consumers who successfully pleaded their cases would receive only a reversal of any charges in excess. |
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Diplomatic relations with Estonia The Dominican Republic and the Republic of Estonia have agreed to begin diplomatic relations. The ambassador in Sweden, Abigail Mejia Ricart, signed an accord for the Dominican Republic at the Embassy of Estonia in Stockholm, Sweden, according to the Ministry of Foreign Relations. Ambassador Toomas Tivel signed for Estonia. |
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Elena Viyella to head CONEP The National Council of Business (CONEP) elected Elena Viyella to preside over the leading business organization for 2003-2005, replacing Marino Ginebra in this capacity. Elena Viyella was president of the Association of Industries of the Dominican Republic at the time of her election. Other members of the board are: Franklin Baez Brugal, Luis Molina Achecar, Jose Clase, Irving Redondo, Jorge Ivan Ramirez, Rafael del Toro, Fernando Armenteros, Campos de Moya, Rafael blanco Canto, Francisco Garcia, Lisandro Macarrulla, Ruben Reynoso and Miguel Angel Tallaj. Previous to her appointment, Viyella presided over several other national organizations, including the stock exchange of Santo Domingo and the Agribusiness Council. She is also president of Monte Rio Power company, Interquimica and Indescorp. |
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Leave ethanol up to the private sector El Caribe editorializes today against the government’s involvement in the production of ethanol. The newspaper explains that the production of ethanol is only viable when and if sugar prices are depressed and petroleum prices very high. The newspaper explains that the government would have to sacrifice a large share of its tax revenues, of which 13% come from the tax on petroleum product sales. It also highlights that in the United States, the government heavily subsidizes the production of ethanol. El Caribe asserts that for decades salesmen of equipment and machinery to produce ethanol have tried to attract the government’s attention, but urges that, in these days of privatization, such an investment should be left exclusively to the private sector without any government guarantee and without the government having to sacrifice its fiscal revenues. |
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Apparel exports up El Caribe newspaper reports that US Department of Commerce statistics show that apparel exports from the Dominican Republic to the United States are recovering. The Dominican Repubic is the 6th largest exporter in value (behind Mexico, China, Hong Kong, Honduras and Indonesia) and seventh largest in volume of merchandise. Dominican exports to the US in September 2002 represented a value of US$190.9-million, up from US$180.4-million for September 2001. Total exports for the first nine months of the year are down 6.3% compared to last year, falling from US$1.7 billion last year to US$1.6-billion. |
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Spying on Leonel Fernandez? Ultima Hora newspaper reports that Lawyer Marino Vinicio (Vincho) Castillo said on TV yesterday that state security agents were spying on former President Leonel Fernandez, the leading opposition potential candidate for the 2004 presidential elections. Castillo said that four microphones were found in Fernandez’s apartment during a search that followed a supposed robbery. He attributed the microphones to concern on behalf of official sectors regarding Fernandez’s possible aspirations to become the next Dominican president. “Espionage has increased, it is believed to be necessary, which is absurd because there are no conspiracies in this country. People are even being followed on the street, so as to control the society. What happened in Leonel’s apartment is not the work of a crack consuming individual,” said Castillo on the Hoy Mismo talk show on Channel 9. He said that Fernandez’s cleaning staff discovered the microphones, but apparently the former President did not want to publicize this. Ultima Hora reported that Colonel Ramon Rodriguez said that they had arrested Luis Manuel Díaz de la Rosa, who later admitted it was he who entered the former President’s apartment. Castillo also said that to spy on a public figure by entering that person’s intimate quarters would only give way to blackmail, a dispicable consequence of what he termed as political contamination. |
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Castillo focuses on drug trafficking again Lawyer Vinicio (Vincho) Castillo was also critical of President Hipolito Mejia for his comment that eight of every ten Dominicans are guilty of being thieves. He said that in making such a statement, the President is channeling his doubts as to the honesty of his close aides onto the general population. Major credit card fraud and irregular use of an airplane and helicopter assigned to the advance team of the President has put the public spotlight on his close aide, Colonel Pedro Julio Goico. Castillo also revealed that two pilots arrested in the United States for transporting more than 400 kilos of cocaine in a private airplane have been in contact with their accomplices in this country. Apparently the pilots in custody have been warned that the security of their relatives depends on what they could say in court. Castillo revealed that the airplane had been loaded with the illegal drugs at 3 am at the Herrera Airport. He said drug trafficking continues to attempt to entice the local airforce and police, mentioning the case of heroine and cocaine found recently at the Punta Cana International Airport, in which the military was involved. |
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Goico’s signature was forged, says his lawyer Lawyer Artagnan Perez said it is unlikely that Colonel Pedro Julio Goico will be tried in a court of law. As reported in El Caribe, the lawyer said that the signature of his client on the Baninter credit card was a forgery and that Goico is a victim in this case. Bank officer Alberto Torres, however, has admitted his responsibility in the scandal. The four accused individuals are being detained at the Ministry of Armed Forces that has handled the case to date. |
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