President Leonel Fernandez has filled an entire page in most of the newspapers over the weekend with lists of new assistant district attorneys and prosecutors. The President also named the directors and sub-directors for the Cooperative Institute, the Small Business Program, the Postal Service, the State Sugar and Livestock Board (CEAGANA), the Price Stabilization Institute, the Community Development Office, and his pilot and Presidential Guard commander. The newspapers furthermore feature the announcement of the Dominican members to the Central American Parliament, which includes several PRSC and PRD members. Another international job was given to Mario Arvelo Caamano, who was named the Dominican ambassador to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). The President also continued his appointments of consular personnel around the globe.
In spite of all the high-visibility appointments, however, Fernandez has still not been able to find suitable substitutes for Fabio Ruiz Rosado, the current head of Plan RENOVE, Ramon Emilio Colombo, the director of CERTV, the state-run radio and television corporation, nor for William Jana, the head of the Social Security Institute (IDSS). And then there is the strange case of former Vice-Admiral Radhames Lora Salcedo, the head of the NCE, the Dominican Commission for Emergencies. Lora Salcedo, the high-profile chief of the Dominican disaster relief organization and the head of Civil Defense, was recently retired from his rank of vice-admiral, but he has not been removed from his either of his posts at the NCE and Civil Defense.
And, finally, the President continued to appoint advisors from the business community. Frank Jorge Elias was named communications advisor, Jose Luis Abraham, an executive with AERODOM, as aeronautical advisor, and Antonio Isa Conde as industrial advisor.
As many criticize the fact that former Vice-President Jaime David Fernandez Mirabel has been left out of the current administration, PLD party leader Lidio Cadet revealed that the former VP was offered a post and turned it down.
El Caribe reports that amid the heavy pressures being exerted by PLD party members to win the coveted functionary posts, Fernandez Mirabel, who was the president's right-hand man in the former PLD administration, was offered a position in the area of natural resources and environment, which he did not accept. Cadet said he did not know the reason behind Fernandez Mirabal's rejection of the offer that would have permitted him and his followers to take an active role in the current government.
Speaking on the televised morning show "Despierta con CDN," Cadet reminded the PLD activists clamoring for appointments that sacrifices were necessary within the official party's ranks, especially in view of President Fernandez's proclaimed goal of reducing the public payroll by 20%.
"The government's plans for austerity obliges us to rely on a willingness to make sacrifices, without which there is no possibility of facing down this crisis with any degree of success," he said to his interviewer.
As a member of the committee allocating the public-sector posts to the PLD party's faithful, Cadet said they are doing everything possible to ensure that these posts are filled by people with the professional qualifications necessary. The distribution of these positions has caused several disgruntled PLD activists to believe that only members of a certain group within the party are being favored by these appointments.
Yesterday, PLD representative Natacha Sanchez demanded that PLD activists be named to the public posts yet to be handed over. It has been reported that certain PRD functionaries have been asked to stay on at their posts until suitable replacements can be named. In Sanchez's opinion, it would be a grave error to leave these jobs in the hands of "strangers," as they do not belong to the PLD party.
The president of the Chamber of Deputies, Alfredo Pacheco, said that the government negotiating team was arrogant and that the tax reform bill was "minimally" agreed upon because neither the commission that studied the legislation nor Pachecho himself would allow themselves to be provoked by the government's committee. As reported in Hoy, the head of the deputies said that the government officials treated the Chamber's Special Finance Commission as if they were "errand boys." Pacheco said that during the two long days of negotiations, his deputies had to put up with many annoyances, and that at one point the government's people tried to abandon the session and he (Pacheco) had to stop them from leaving. "They were like babies," he said.
A spokesman for the International Monetary Fund stressed that fiscal reform was of equal importance as the restructuring of the electricity and banking systems. Improving the administration of public funds was also an essential factor in the country's recovery, in the organization's opinion. The Fund expressed confidence in the new government's commitment to reform with the following statement: "President Fernandez is determined to proceed with institutional reforms and coherent economic policies". Several newspaper editorials address the issue of good governance in their columns. Manuel Jose Cabral in El Caribe makes several suggestions aimed at helping the new President to reduce public spending, including cutting down on the number of public employees, a proposal for reducing numbers through natural wastage (not replacing an employee who retires, resigns or dies) except in the case of essential posts, and establishing targets for this purpose. Cabral also suggests reforming the way government contracts are allocated, by submitting them to genuine public tender, and ends by saying, "Some of these measures were recommended to former President Mejia without success. We hope that President Fernandez will embrace them." Hoy's Rafael Molina Morillo in his "Mis buenos dias" column recounts an Arab fable that tells of two boys, one rich and the other poor. As the two were returning home from the market, the poor boy was carrying a loaf of dry bread while the rich boy had some honey-coated biscuits. The rich boy told the poor boy that if he wanted one of his biscuits he had to get down on all fours and imitate a dog. The poor boy did so and was given a biscuit. A sage observing the scene commented: "If this poor boy had any dignity, he would find a way of earning the money. Instead, he prefers to turn himself into the rich boy's dog in order to eat the biscuits. Tomorrow, when he is older, he'll do the same thing for a public appointment, and will be capable of anything, including betraying his people and his country for money." The column ends with the writer's comment: "That's how the story ends. I was left wondering how many people I know must have imitated the dog when they were children".
Attorney General Francisco Dominguez Brito has ordered his people to review the files of over 100 prisoners recently released from custody by former AG Victor Cespedes Martinez. El Caribe says its sources at the attorney general's offices have indications of some irregularities and that Dominguez Brito wants to know all the details. In defense of his actions, Cespedes Martinez told reporters during a visit to El Caribe that "it was not necessary to wait until a prisoner was dying in order to release him." Cespedes added that during one of his last visits to the Najayo Prison, he found a person dying of AIDS, another of tuberculosis and one from cancer. The former AG recounted that he had ordered for their immediate release, and said he would do the same again. The newspaper's sources said that Dominguez Brito would be looking at what sort of offenses had been committed by the freed convicts, and if their health issues justified their release from prison.
Claudia Franchesca de los Santos, the Under-Minister for Transportation and Communication at the Public Works Ministry, reported that 16,000 plastic drivers' licenses and the machine used to print them were stolen between 18 May and 15 August. As a result, the DGTT (Transportation Department) has provided a 30-day period for those people whose licenses are numbered between 955001 and 960000, 980001 and 982500, 986501 and 988500, 989501 and 990000, and those 990001 to 99500 to turn them in or face serious judicial consequences. For some time, according to the Listin Diario, the word on the street was that a license was obtainable for those willing to "do anything" to get one. The cost was known to be RD$3,000. In a follow-up story, three transportation syndicate presidents told Listin Diario reporter Adriana Peguero that there was a close collaboration between officials at the Traffic Office and the driving schools, and that the latter were the purveyors of the false learner's permits and licenses.
In spite of public declarations of payment for the subsidy, propane gas continued to be very scarce all over the country. The president of the refinery, Aristedes Fernandez Zucco, told El Caribe reporters that he had not received the RD$200 million that was reported to have been paid by Finance Minister Vicente Bengoa. In fact, Fernandez Zucco said that the government owed the refinery RD$800 million, and, as there is money pending, Fernandez was positive that a solution was underway. He also announced that two ships would arrive on Monday with a total of 3.8 million gallons of propane. Last Thursday, the refinery received a shipment of 2.5 million gallons, enough to supply nearly half the weekly demand that is estimated to be between 5.5 and 7 million gallons of propane across the nation.
The new superintendent of electricity, Francisco Mendez, told reporters that he and his team would resolve the current crisis in the electric sector by using the ten points outlined in President Fernandez's inaugural speech. During the first two weeks of the new PLD administration, a plan has been sketched out for the short, medium and long terms. According to Mendez, the first thing to do in the short term is increase electricity production in order to collect more money. In the medium term, the superintendent was clear that the contracts for buying and selling energy would have to be renegotiated, but that this was merely part of the bigger picture. Energy conservation and transparency in the accounting of the costs of energy were also parts of the program. Also included in the medium term process was the return of the two electricity distributors to the private sector through a public tender. On one point Mendez was emphatic: In order to better service and reduce costs, all of the Independent Power Producers (IPPs) would have to concede some of their profits on the short term to permit more capital to be put into the system. Mendez said that he knew the government debts with energy producers and the debts that some entities had with the government had to be cleared up for the mutual benefit of both parties. Looking into the long term, Mendez pointed out the obvious need to verify alternative energy proposals as a way to reduce costs. He pointed to a study carried out by an economic consulting team headed by Pavel Isa Contreras, which clearly stated months ago that the current situation of indebtedness on the part of the distributors, the generalized subsidies on the part of the government, and the current tariff structure would lead to the bankruptcy of the sector.
Mendez admitted that the US$50 million that the government recently injected into the energy sector would only suffice for the couple of months needed to put the new plans into operation.
It appears that the government is planning to abolish subsidies for electric power customers who consume more than 200mw per month before renegotiating the contracts and making the process transparent, as promised by President Leonel Fernandez during his inaugural speech on 16 August. The reason given by Electricity Superintendent Francisco Mendez was that the renegotiation would be a lengthy process and the government's priority was to increase its revenue by eliminating the subsidy costs. The subsidies would be phased out gradually as from October and November, explained Mendez, in order to minimize the impact on the middle classes. He also announced that US government aid agency USAID is currently conducting a study on payment options, marketing and subsidy methods that is intended to reform the process.
The papers this morning give prominence to the story of outgoing Attorney General, Victor Cespedes Martinez and his ruling to drop the case against the 727 individuals accused of illegal land expropriation in the Bahia de las Aguilas, an area of exceptional natural beauty which is part of the Jaragua National Park nature reserve in the southwest of the country. This controversial decision was made on 13 August, three days before the handover of power to the new administration. The individuals concerned were to be given back their land titles, according to the newspapers. The dispute had been in process since 1997, when an area of over 500 tareas was taken over by a group of individuals that included such prominent figures as a former director of the Dominican Agrarian Institute (IAD) and a top PRSC leader. The new attorney general, Francisco Dominguez Brito, has revoked his predecessor's ruling, however, saying that the case against the accused – which began during the previous PLD government's term of office - would proceed regardless. The Bahia de las Aguilas area is seen as a prime spot for potential commercial tourism developments, but the plans have been met with stiff opposition from environmentalists and the Dominican Academy of Sciences. Listin Diario reports that the new Tourism Minister Felucho Jimenez is planning to promote the southwest as a tourist destination.
Diario Libre reports from Jimani, the southwestern town devastated by flash flooding in May this year. Jimani, it says, has returned to its former status as a "forgotten town on the Haitian border" that has been neglected by the government. Several survivors of the disaster told the newspaper that they have been abandoned, underscoring the lack of a potable water system and the loss of arable lands where they used to grow foods like cassava, corn and plantains for basic subsistence and for sale at the frontier. A farmer quoted in the article says that no one from the Agriculture Ministry has appeared on the scene to survey the losses and assess the farmers' needs, and that his family survives on the occasional handouts of rice and tinned sardine
The contents of this webpage are copyright © 1996-2008. DR1. All Rights Reserved.