After months of only partial use, the Ministry of Public Works opened two lanes for light vehicles on the Juan Pablo Duarte Bridge in the capital city of Santo Domingo. Several lanes had been closed to traffic due to the previous authorities' purported intention to initiate repairs on the structure.
While Public Works Minister Freddy Perez said that studies conducted by international experts have shown that it is not necessary to demolish the structure, as had been mentioned, it is in need of greater maintenance.
Perez said that one of the principal recommendations made by the professionals who inspected the Duarte Bridge was that the cement ramparts be taken away in view of their weight. He also said that the studies showed the structure that spans the Ozama River could be fortified with an investment of RD$17 million. A tender, according to Perez, will be held to select a company to oversee the repairs.
Labor Minister Jose Ramon Fadul managed to get representatives of CONEP (the national business council) and the labor unions to sit down and reach a consensus on the new wage agreements, particularly the part that provides for a 25% wage increase for those making less than RD$20,000 per month. The talks managed to overcome some of the legal stumbling blocks that had pushed CONEP to challenge the validity of Resolution 02-04 and the National Salaries Commission agreed to meet today at 10am to officially seal the deal. Minister Fadul mediated the conflict and as a result some of the language in Resolution 02-04 was modified, specifically the word homologar which means "homologate" or "ratify" in the legal context, which was changed to reconocer, which means "recognize as valid." Another change to the resolution was the classification of small, medium and large enterprises with regard to the application of the minimum wage laws. Elena Viyella de Paliza (CONEP), Virgilio Ortega Nadal (Employer's Confederation of the Dominican Republic) and William Robert Calderon (Confederation of Small and Medium Businesses) signed for the business community and Gabriel del Rio Done, Mariano Negron, Rafael Abreu and Eugenio Perez Cepeda on behalf of the unions. The minimum wage for a business with over RD$4.0 million in property or inventory will now be RD$6,400 per month. A monthly minimum wage of RD$4,400 is established for those commercial enterprises with between RD$2.0 and RD$4.0 million in capital, and for the smallest businesses, the ones with less than RD$2.0 million in capital including buildings and inventories, the minimum wage will be RD$3,900 per month.
Elena Viyella reiterated CONEP's support for the document and clarified that the 25% increase for those monthly salaries between the minimum wage and RD$20,000 will take into account any wage increases that were made during the year and adjusted accordingly.
The Monetary Board has introduced several changes in the way to calculate interest rates on long-term investment certificates, in accord with certain recommendations from the IMF. Among the changes will be to let the market determine the interest rates paid, a move suggested by the IMF to preserve interest on long-term deposits. The interest rates will become a type of bounty that will be subject to bidding by the public. This will affect certificates held for terms of 18 months to 5 years.
Industry and Commerce Minister Francisco Javier Garcia told reporters yesterday that he did not see any reason for commercial establishments not to lower their prices. He pointed out that inventory that had been purchased with dollars at the high end of this year's roller coaster exchange rate were now exhausted and that his ministry would take steps to lower the cost of the basic necessities.
The minister also pointed out that fuel prices were substantially lower this week, with the subsidy on propane down from RD$800 million to RD$560 million. He added that there was excess supply and that the lineups for propane at the various distributors' outlets were no longer evident.
According to the Listin Diario, the minister also announced a program to verify the quality of the fuels sold to consumers. A mark of certification will be placed in highly visible locations at the filling stations around the country. And if that was the carrot, the minister also unveiled a move to crack the whip a little harder, saying that his ministry was reviewing sanctions to be applied to those gasoline stations that do not meet the standards.
In a similar story in El Caribe today, the paper asks why do prices continue to defy gravity. El Caribe's reporters write that prices are nearly as high as when the dollar was being exchanged at RD$50. For the past several weeks there has been a strong downward tendency in the exchange market and currently the US currency is trading at prices lower than RD$27 to one, representing a 34% decrease since 16 August. In spite of that, only September saw a decrease in the Consumer Price Index, falling 1.13%, in the face of a 32.61% inflation rate from December of 2003. This past week, everyone from the President Leonel Fernandez to the president of CONEP has called for a reduction in prices. Economist Miguel Ceara Hatton, a consultant to the UNDP, says that prices are influenced by very few individuals that control the supply chain of many important products. Ceara feels that the lower price of the dollar should have had a significant impact at the consumer level. Many imported consumer items, such as milk, should have seen their prices lowered by nearly 17.5% to correspond to reality. Economist Pavel Isa Contreras put it another way: "There are two basic reasons, one is that the businesses change their inventories and buy new merchandise with cheaper dollars, but this (new inventory) can take as much as two months (to reach the consumer) because of customs paperwork. (The second reason is) that we are in an oligopoly marketplace, where a handful of people control the prices."
To read the article in full, please see http://www.elcaribe.com.do/articulo_multimedios.aspx...
The Metropolitan Transport Authority (AMET) will heed the decision of the Supreme Court that repealed its right to assess fines for traffic infractions. General Jose Fernandez Fadul was clear on this, as were the different transportation syndicates such as FENATRANO and the Unified Transportation Workers Central (CNTU). As reported in the Listin Diario, AMET agents will continue to retain driver's licenses in accordance with Article 225 of Law 241, a fact that was also confirmed by the general. After a 35-minute meeting with Chief Supreme Court Justice Jorge Subero Isa, General Fernandez Fadul said that AMET itself was not being eliminated, merely its ability to levy fines. The official said that AMET would always act within the limits of the law. Decree 789-02 had previously permitted AMET to "emit, administrate, collect and control the fines levied for infractions of Law 241.
The other side of the Supreme Court decision, however, was chaotic, reports El Caribe. According to the article, one agent, who requested anonymity, said that he would continue to do his job just as before, as no officer had instructed him to do otherwise. The Traffic Court that operated in Santo Domingo ceased to operate as its judges went home. They said that they had decided to close the court yesterday since all that they knew was that the Supreme Court had not officially told them what the implications of their decision would be for the Traffic Court itself. The judges are quoted as having said, "We can't condemn anyone to pay a fine because we don't know how to manage this business." Nevertheless, the AMET officers that were observed working in Santo Domingo did not exhibit any change in their work habits and were telling drivers to go straight to the Banco de Reservas (where fines are paid) in order to "avoid going to court," which is exactly what the Supreme Court has declared to be unconstitutional. The head of AMET said that he would hold another meeting with the Supreme Court justices in order to find alternative solutions for traffic violations.
The Dominican government's accounting office, known as the Chamber of Accounts, handed the Santo Domingo prosecutor's office a complaint directed at the electricity distributor Ede-Este and its current and past officers connected to a sum of RD$2.060 billion that was allegedly not reported to the government. Apparently, the money was classified under "uncollectable accounts," but the lofty amount violates the limits placed on this type of account by the Rules for the Application of the Tax Code 138-98, Article 29. The accounting office has handed the case over to the prosecutor's office in order to investigate the degree of responsibility of all current and former Ede-Este officers. The audit also showed that the Dominican state, as a 50% shareholder in Ede-Este's operations, failed to receive RD$171 million because the agreement on the conciliation and consolidation of debts in the CDEEE, dated 5 June 2003, was not fulfilled. According to the accounting unit, when Ede-Este was required to pay the CDEEE an amount of RD$1,049,218,000, the sum of RD$777 million was to go towards the acquisition of Ede-Este shares by the Dominican government and the remaining RD$271,854,102 was to be paid to the Dominican Treasury. Of this sum, Ede-Este has only paid RD$100 million, however, leaving nearly RD$172 million left to be paid.
A new poll that was released and presented to the public by Monsignor Agripino Nunez Collado, the rector of the Pontificia Universidad Catolica Madre Y Maestra (PUCMM), shows that 74% of Dominicans want democracy, but that there are 66% who want the government to be much harder on criminals. The story in Hoy shows that 19% of the people are happy with the way that democracy is functioning in the DR, but 19% are very displeased with its functioning. The survey indicates that 62% have a lukewarm attitude to the system. The study is titled the IV National Survey on Democracy and Political Culture (DEMOS 2004) and it demonstrates a predominant approval rating for the government that would impose respect for law and order. Nunez Collado, along with USAID's Elena Brineman, oversaw the public release of the findings, which included a three-point decrease since 2001 in the approval rating of the democratic system. As reported in El Caribe, the survey showed the population's marked preference for the military over the justice system, and a generally low regard for most governmental institutions. The military topped the list with a 38.9% acceptance rate, followed by city mayors and then the justice department. While the National Police received only 33%, it outdid Congress and President Fernandez, who received 28% and 23% respectively (although it should be pointed out that the survey was conducted between January and March of 2004). Of the 4,460 individuals interviewed for the survey, the overwhelming majority expressed very strong criticism of the quality of basic services such as water, education, transportation and health.
The much-read "Que se dice" column reports today on the hectic schedule that public school teachers manage as part of a justification of the report just released that showed most teachers work just shy of 15 hours a week. The columnist says that a source very close to public education sent her the union itinerary of the Dominican Association of Teachers (ADP) to assist the memory of teacher and ADP leader Eduardo Cuello insofar as to what part it plays in the responsibility for teachers failing to fulfill their educational duties. The itinerary normally begins on Wednesdays, when the ADP holds its teachers' assemblies at those schools experiencing some sort of conflict. Given the tendency, however, for conflict that is generated by such a poorly paid profession, there is nearly always a teachers' assembly being held at one school or another. At 10am on Thursdays, the directors and officers of the National Teacher's Cooperative get together to check accounts, but since all teachers are members of the co-op, these meetings are well attended. Friday is the students' favorite day of the week since the schools hold "Colorful Fridays" as part of the social activities demanded by the curriculum. The editorialist ends by saying you don't have to be an expert in educational planning to know that all this time lost in extra-curricular activities (never better said) could be better spent if it were aimed at something much more educational, for example schoolwork!
An absurd quest is what the editorialist calls the efforts of Dominican Medical College president Waldo Ariel Suero, after President Leonel Fernandez classified the doctors as ordinary citizens who would have to wait their turn for a salary increase. The push being made for more work stoppage at the hospitals is also ridiculous because they have been told a thousand times that there is not enough money to give them what they want. The editorialist says that they could, for example, decide not ever to return to the public hospitals, abandoning the hundreds of sorry folk who crowd the emergency rooms to their fates during these strikes, but not even this extreme gesture of inhumanity, this vile treachery of the Hippocratic Oath will get them what they are asking for with such bad manners. What next?
Sedimentation in the Ozama River is threatening the success of the cruise ship season that has just gotten underway. The imminent arrival of the Royal Caribbean Empress of the Seas cruise ship filled with tourists on 16 November has caused the local officialdom to take action, however. The first day's cleanup activities brought up 300 cubic meters of mud and garbage, as authorities seek to avoid a repeat of an incident last 26 October when the intake turbines of the Royal Caribbean vessel Empress of the Seas sucked up the carcass of an old refrigerator, causing extensive damage while moored at the Don Diego docks. Called a "natural garbage dump" by ecologist Eleuterio Martinez, the Ozama is the natural waste disposal site for the surrounding industries and population. The poorest neighborhoods that lie adjacent to the river do not receive any garbage collection service, and, according to Martinez, "there is a series of industries that use [the river] as their private dumping ground." The local dredging company, Dragados del Caribe, had begun a hydrological study last Wednesday, which was supposed to last for three days as the company identified the most important areas to be dredged. The Dominican Navy's Dredging and Dams department, however, ordered a 24-hour-a-day workload in order to guarantee water depth at dockside of at least 10 meters and ensure the safety of the liner that is due to arrive "in the next few days." Accumulated sediment and refuse has robbed the waterway of approximately three meters from the depth of the anchorage. While Dragados del Caribe officially holds the contract for the cleanup efforts, its equipment is not in use because of a reported mechanical flaw. There are 16 sailors currently working on the dredging.
The Empress of the Seas has another trip set to depart for a 4-day South Caribbean Cruise on 15 November from San Juan, docking in Santo Domingo on the 16 and 17 November, to then travel to Casa de Campo and Catalina Island in La Romana prior to returning to San Juan.
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