Ministry of Public Health employees - over 44,000 strong - will begin to collect their salary using electronic cards beginning this month, as reported by Diario Libre. Payroll Manager Simon Santiago said that they expect to save approximately RD$1 billion yearly in expenses for preparation of checks, fuel, electricity, per diems, etc. The new system will also contribute towards institutional transparency and a quick and efficient payment method.
According to a press release from the Ministry of Foreign Relations, the Dominican Ambassador to India Hans Dannenberg went to Jordan to mediate in the labor dispute between a transportation company and a group of Dominicans who had been working in the Middle-Eastern country. Diario Libre reports that the conflict arose when the Dominican truck drivers refused to sign documents freeing the company from their salary responsibilities. Dannenberg reported that they finally accepted payment of their last salary plus 16 days in August. Of the group, Humberto Vasquez and Odalis Dilone were expected to arrive yesterday, whereas Jose Ramon Geraldino, Rafael Jimenez, Pedro Rosario, Teodoro Dipet, Rafael Faustino and Jose Tavares are to leave Jordan today, and Jose Zorrilla, Jose Figuereo, Robi Ponciano and Alfredo Vidal are leaving on Wednesday. Jose Jimenez decided to stay working in Jordan and Wilson Campana is imprisoned for his involvement in a fight.
President Leonel Fernandez has made several additional changes to official government posts, as reported by Diario Libre. The President appointed Major General Andres Apolinar Disla as president of the Armed Forces Retirement Board and Major General Herman Disla Gonzalez as Armed Forces Reserve Director. Also, General Antonio Valentin Jaquez Lopez was appointed to the post of Armed Forces Intelligence Director with a transitory rank of Major General. Teodoro Tejada was appointed as Deputy Minister of Public Works and Cesar Martinez was appointed Deputy Director of the Dominican Port Authority in substitution of Jose Montas, who was elected mayor of San Cristobal in the recent elections.
Writing in Hoy newspaper, journalist Juan Bolivar Diaz analyzes the challenges ahead for the government. He points out that now that the Fernandez government controls the executive and legislative branches, the opportunity is there for major institutional and social changes to be carried out. He points out that the principal challenges are the scant transparency in government, improving income distribution and developing capacity to establish an alliance with civil society. "With a majority in the two legislative houses, and an Executive Branch, with high popular acceptance, the PLD has many possibilities to strengthen itself as a dominant political force if it avoids the temptation of short-termism and governs with a focus on the long term. He mentions the difficulties currently being experienced by the opposition, and their internal problems.
He points to a bundle of reforms, many requirements of the DR-CAFTA agreement, such as the creation of the ministry of planning and development and treasury, and government areas in charge of arbitration, promoting competitiveness, planning and public investment, internal controls, and new laws to regulate the budget and the controllers office, as base for transparency and policies to reduce corruption. Likewise, there is a law to make political parties accountable, and fulfillment of laws in favor of social security, an ombudsman, and consumer protection. "This legislative agenda is making a priority of Constitutional reform, in which the government appears to have been given priority," he writes.
He says the challenge facing Reinaldo Pared Perez as president of the Senate and Julio Cesar Valentin as president of the Chamber of Deputies is to clean the image of those institutions, which are currently among the least trusted by the public, according to a recent Gallup poll.
He writes that the present government's insistence to finish the metro before the 2008 election, which calls for a reduction in priority investments, and not confronting with fairness the Central Bank deficit while the country is penalized by the high price of petroleum and a larger external debt for the next two years could revert the main achievement the government has had, which is macroeconomic stability.
"Certainly, there is the risk that the government will overestimate the opposition parties' weaknesses and forget that the government's popularity can evaporate rapidly, as has happened in the past decades in Latin America where democratic re-elections can be counted on the fingers of one hand," comments Diaz.
http://www.hoy.com.do/app/article.aspx?id=85904
The country's eastern region has replaced the Haitian border region as the preferred area for the entry of drugs into Dominican territory. From January to July this year, the authorities seized 1,100 pounds of cocaine, heroin and marijuana, according to a report in Diario Libre. The drugs are being brought in by small aircraft that fly at low altitude. It is believed that the total amount of drugs that make it through Dominican territory is always higher than the quantity that is actually seized.
As part of the decision to crack the drug traffickers' hold on the Dominican Republic, the government has announced that it plans to purchase radars to combat the use of Dominican territory for drug trafficking. The new president of the National Drug Control Department (DNCD), Major General Rafael Ramirez Ferreiras said that the government department is working closely with the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). Drug trafficking operations used to be largely centered in Haiti, but Haitian saboteurs made these operations dangerous, and most of the traffic was re-routed for stopover points in the DR. The problem has been that local operators are paid in drugs, which they later need to sell locally. The resulting increase in drug consumption has in turn brought an increase in drugs. Statistics show that one in every five murders are related to narcotics consumption or trafficking.
Yesterday, news reports indicated that 20 sales points were dismantled in the Cibao (Santiago) region, and 17 people were arrested while carrying out drug transactions. A Dominican resident in the US was arrested when attempting to export 730 grams of heroin to New York through Santiago's Cibao Airport.
The DNCD also announced the arrest and change of agents assigned to the Santo Domingo Oriental division (eastern Santo Domingo). Likewise, staff at DNCD offices in San Francisco de Macoris, Barahona and Las Americas International Airport (Santo Domingo) were removed.
The Fernandez administration recently announced that it would dismantle 20,000 known narcotics sales points in the country. A laissez-faire and complacent approach on the part of the authorities in their dealings with drug traffickers led to the burgeoning of drug sales points from an estimated 2,000 in the year 2000 to 20,000 at present. The authorities now hope to reverse this process and are working closely with the Police, Armed Forces and state prosecutors. The judiciary is the last link in the chain. Statistics show that to date, the judiciary has been lax in penalizing drug traffickers.
The Dominican Telecommunications Institute (INDOTEL) has fired its electronic commerce manager Hector Manuel Castillos Morel due to a breach of ethics in his duties, after establishing that the official was selling surveillance equipment through a website. INDOTEL Director Jose Rafael Vargas stated that although it is uncertain whether the devices were actually used to intercept telephone calls, this type of business is incompatible with his duties in the institute. The website was taken down after Diario Libre reported about the sale of espionage equipment through it.
Economist Pavel Isa Contreras, who recently resigned as advisor to the Technical Minister of the Presidency, criticizes the government in a recent interview with Hoy newspaper. He is critical of the fact that government social policies emphasize effects and not the population's lack of capacities. He criticizes the government's dispersed efforts in programs such as Promese (low cost generic pharmaceuticals), Solidaridad (RD$1,000 monthly subsidy to parents of public school children and propane gas subsidy), Inespre (low cost produce), Loteria (lottery), Comedores Economicos (community kitchens serving low-cost food). He says when the government created the Social Cabinet, the idea was that it would serve as an umbrella for other social programs, but has ended up just in charge of the new Solidaridad program. He said that the government spends relatively little on health and education when compared to the gross domestic product. "A sick population, one that is vulnerable to illness and is unskilled, is not a population that is capable of being productive and overcoming its own poverty," he said.
Isa criticizes the government's priorities. He criticizes the subsidies on propane gas and electricity.
He is also critical of all the resources being poured into the metro. He told the interviewer that the metro is being built because the President wants it to, despite the drain on public resources now and in the future. "Now because part of the resources are used for that. And in the future because the loans being taken out now will have to be paid from the money that otherwise would be used to fund social programs and to create the skills that are needed in the long term. To fund health and education programs is to create productive capacities," he said.
Furthermore, in his opinion the exchange rate never should have been allowed to reach levels of 28, 29 or 30 to the dollar. He said that the current exchange stability has been achieved at the cost of steep indebtedness of the Central Bank. He explains this as a mega vacuum cleaner that is picking up all the money that was circulated to save the collapsing banks. He says that to do so the Central Bank had to offer very attractive interest rates.
Isa went on to say that he does not foresee changes. He explains that the government has a public debt of RD$160 billion with the people, which it will pay off in 10 to 15 years, generating a surplus, spending less than it receives and transferring these funds to the Central Bank to pay investors who have CDs. "That is our money, we are the ones who are going to pay for the collapse of the banks. Obviously this is money that could have been spent on health and education, bridges and roads. That is the tragedy - corrupt bankers in cahoots with corrupt government officials."
In his opinion, there is a need for a new fiscal reform, but it cannot be done the way these have been carried out in the past, with an emphasis on generating more revenues for the state. He says that for the reform to have legitimacy, the way the state spends has to be legitimized as well. "And the way the government is spending the money is the most illegitimate way, with lack of transparency and high levels of corruption," he stated.
In his opinion, it is necessary to emphasize a tax on wealth, and on revenues. He says there is too much emphasis on selective taxes. He advocates taxing the income of the more wealthy, even if this is done gradually. "It is scandalous that the interest revenues on bank deposits are tax-exempt," he said. "The message is terrible: "Put your money in banks and earn interest and make your buck there, and do not use it in productive activities because I will tax you. The message to the Dominican people is do not invest in productive activities, deposit it in the banks."
http://www.hoy.com.do/app/article.aspx?id=85972
The government has authorized the privatization of a large stretch of Avenida Espana that borders the sea after crossing the Ozama River. According to a report in Hoy, Lisandro Macarrulla, president of Inversiones Turisticas Sans Souci explained that land from the Ozama River floating bridge further on from the Naval Base would be incorporated into the tourism development project under way. The project includes a marina, shopping area and real estate development. The road will be re-routed north of the Naval Base. Macarrulla said that this would also serve to control traffic flow and that residents in the area will not be affected. Macarrulla said that as part of the project, they have plans for the construction of another bridge over the Ozama River.
Macarrulla explained that the San Diego Cruise Ship Terminal will be in operation by October 2006, and that by September 2007 they will inaugurate a new terminal on the Sans Souci side. He said that these improvements will make Santo Domingo an attractive mother port for cruise ships, meaning that tourists will arrive by air to board the ship, staying in Santo Domingo two or three days prior to departure.
Xstrata, a major global diversified mining group listed on the London and Swiss stock exchanges has announced its purchase of remaining shares of Falconbridge Ltd., a Canadian company. This includes the Dominican affiliate, Falconbridge Dominicana. Xstrata bought 93% of shares in Falconbridge Limited for US$20 billion, a transaction that included 85% of assets of that consortium in the Dominican Republic. Falconbridge operations superintendent Alex Medina and communications manager Luis Rosado explained that Xstrata bought the shares from Falconbridge Limited - which owns shares in over 50 companies around the world - on the Toronto stock exchange. Xstrata's representative in the country, Mail Davis, informed that the Swiss company took over administrative control of the mining company in the DR yesterday. Falconbridge Limited owned 85% of the shares of Falconbridge Dominicana, 10.5% belong to the Dominican state, and 4.5% to other shareholders, according to a report by El Caribe. Xstrata, which has its headquarters in Zug, Switzerland. has investments in Europe, North America and other parts of the world, and after purchasing Falconbridge Limited, has become the fifth largest mining group in the world.
See http://www.xstrata.com/falconbridge/
A group of 65 undocumented Dominicans (39 men and 26 women) was deported to the Dominican Republic after having arrived in Aguadilla, Puerto Rico, according to the Coast Guard in San Juan. This group is in addition to ten Cubans and two Dominicans who were caught on Mona Island, which is located between the two countries.
The New York Times is supporting the aspirations of Dominican lawyer Rita Mella to become Judge in the Civil Court of one of the districts with greater Hispanic and African-American influence in Manhattan. The district covers the areas of Washington Heights, Harlem, Inwood and Morningside Heights, as reported by Clave Digital. In last Sunday's issue, the Times describes Mella as the most outstanding of the candidates who are running for the position. She is "an experienced lawyer and a very dear assistant to Margarita Lopez Torres, a Judge in Brooklyn", said the paper. Rita Mella Febles is 44 years old and was born in Santo Domingo. She graduated Summa Cum Laude at Universidad Nacional Pedro Henriquez Urena (UNPHU) in 1983. Her degree was in Education. In 1991 she graduated from the City University of New York (CUNY) law school, and has had 13 years of professional experience in the New York courts. She has also developed a broad range of community and academic work as professor of Boricua College and member of the Board of Directors of a women's association in Washington Heights.
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