President Leonel Fernandez left today on a ten-day trip that will take him to Havana, Cuba and to the United States. President Fernandez will be taking part in the 14th Summit Meeting of the Non-Alligned Movement that began on 11 September in Cuba and ends on the 16th. He will then travel on to the United States where on Sunday, 17 he will be in Chicago for corporate, political, academic and media meetings. His Chicago agenda includes a meeting with the authorities of the University of Chicago and its School of Public Policy Studies. He will also attend a dinner for the Advisory Board for Dominican Expatriates in Chicago. On Tuesday, 19 September he will travel to New York City where he is scheduled to speak at the 61st General Assembly of the United Nations on Wednesday, 20 September at 3pm. The plenary session seeks to identify ways of maximizing the development benefits of migration and to reduce difficulties.
President Fernandez will again be one of the Russin Vecchi & Heredia Bonetti law firm-sponsored Dominican Week speakers, with another talk scheduled in NYC later on Wednesday evening from 7:30 to 10:30pm at the Model Room of the New York Yacht Club. The 14th Dominican Week is being held this coming 18 September through 21 September with events scheduled for Washington, DC and New York City. Dominican Week seeks to strengthen the ties between Dominicans and Americans, as well as to encourage bilateral trade and promote the best Dominican values.
On Thursday, 21 September, President Fernandez will take part in a Clinton Foundation forum in New York for the second consecutive year. His agenda for the Big Apple also includes a dinner for the Advisory Board for Dominican Expatriates in New York City.
On Friday, 22 September, President Fernandez will speak to a gathering of around 1,000 Hispanic businesspeople in Philadelphia. In the afternoon, he will travel to Miami for meetings with Florida businesspeople, prior to his return to the Dominican Republic on 23 September.
If you come back to find your car is missing in Santo Domingo, it could be good and bad news. The good news is that it wasn't stolen. The bad news is that it was confiscated by the Metropolitan Transport Authority (AMET) and that you will have to pay a fine to get it back. AMET announced last week that illegally parked cars will be confiscated and taken to the old dog-racing track (Canodromo) off Autopista Duarte. Vehicles that create noise pollution will also be towed away. Owners will have to pay a fine determined by a transit court (usually about RD$30) and RD$1,000 for the tow truck to get them back.
AMET and the District Attorney's offices have also announced they would be arresting drivers caught drinking and driving.
Nevertheless, today's El Caribe reports that while there has been talk about taking action against drivers found to be breaking traffic laws, little has actually been done so far.
Hoy newspaper reporters have been trying to contact engineer Diandino Pena, who is in charge of the construction of Santo Domingo's first metro line. However, he has not been available for comment to the press. The reporters also tried to get a comment from a spokesman for the Banco de Reservas, about a news story that the metro builders are seeking a RD$3 billion loan from the Banco de Reservas to continue construction. Recent press reports indicate that the metro builders have already used up most of the RD$1.7 billion allocation from this year's national budget. Congress recently approved a EUR106 million loan for purchasing metro equipment. Critics have pointed out that the metro is consuming half of the funds available for public works construction nationwide.
Diario Libre focuses today on the Czech Consul in the Dominican Republic, Jose Ramon Brea Gonzalez, noting that he has been behind recent controversial deals including a US$132 million loan for Police equipment with Sun Land, the Icasur concession for privatizing the issue of car inspection stickers, and passing on collections of state debt to a private corporation (Enade). Diario Libre reports that the consulate's address appears on the contract with Enade. When questioned about this, Brea Gonzalez said it was an "error" by the lawyers who drafted the contract.
Public Works Minister Freddy Perez spoke up in favor a US$98.6 million loan for re-equipping the department with the assistance of The Sun Land Corporation, the same controversial company that pushed for a returned US$119 million loan to equip the Police. The Police loan turned into a scandal, primarily due to the high commissions and overpricing of the equipment that was to be purchased with commercial bank lending and the guarantee of the US export agency, US Eximbank. Clave newspaper explains that the loan did not go through this time around because the International Monetary Fund ceiling on borrowing led it to be vetoed by the Ministry of Finance.
As in the case of the police equipment loan, the Ministry of Public Works loan called for the purchase of equipment without specifying any makes, models or prices.
In its "De buena tinta" back page column, today's Diario Libre reports on an interesting tidbit from Dominican politics. It explains that while the government has kept Javier Gonzalez as consul in Miami during this Presidential term (he was consul general in Miami during the first Fernandez term), the post of consul in NY has been rotated. The columnist says that this fulfills a kind of agreement in which every year a PLD politician replaces another in what is considered one of the "juiciest" jobs in Dominican political clientelism. The new appointee, who is president of the PLD's New Jersey, Pennsylvania and DC branch has been a party member for years now. "But among his virtues there is one that is worth talking about: he is Administrative Secretary of the Presidency Danilo Medina's wife's brother." Danilo Medina is regarded as the PLD's kingmaker, and aspires to the presidential nomination for the party in 2008.
Lawyer Marisol Vicens Bello, who has written extensively about electricity-related issues, expresses disappointment that the governmental solution to the electricity problem once more seems to be the strengthening of the successor of the Dominican Electricity Corporation, CDEEE. She comments that despite recommendations by the Adam Smith consultants for strengthening the Superintendence of Electricity as an independent organization, in the government's proposal made by the Technical Ministry of the Presidency the government proposes the consolidation of the CDEEE's role, that currently is practically the only purchaser of power.
During last weekend's Juan Dolio workshop on power solutions, the CDEEE representatives presented their plans for the expansion of the service with the installation of coal-fired plants, and the need to renegotiate the price of purchasing power under the Madrid Accords.
But, Vicens points out that the Madrid Accords, like the contracts with the private power producers (IPPs) were negotiated and signed by the former CDE, and announced one by one as the solution to the electricity crisis. Much the same way as the CDEEE was responsible for negotiating and drafting the controversial government buyback of EdeSur and EdeNorte power distribution companies, she stresses.
"All these decisions by the former CDE or the new CDEEE were convenient for their directors, but not for the majority, which demonstrates how fragile a proposal can be when it is based on solutions promoted or implemented by the CDEEE and why it is difficult for so many of us to believe them, because its track record of failures are too fresh in our memories," she points out in her commentary in today's El Caribe. "Obviously, today as yesterday, politics is inclining the balance towards this type of measure that offers circumstantial solutions and seeks to generate a positive political impact in the short term," she writes.
The most important resolution to come from the recent meeting about the country's energy crisis was the discussion of a law that criminalizes the theft of electricity. At the Juan Dolio power workshop, President Leonel Fernandez announced that he would establish a new court to judge cases of electricity theft, and that the penalties for such a crime would be severe. But an article in Clave newspaper highlights the fact that this new law on the criminalization of theft is in fact ironic in the light of the authorities' own flagrant violation of the General Law of Electricity.
According to the Electricity Law, companies that use more than 0.2 megawatts are authorized to become non-regulated users and can disconnect from the power distribution billing system. Nonetheless, the Superintendence of Electricity has instead issued a resolution placing the limit at 1.4 MW, in violation of the law.
Another violation of the law by the authorities is the failure to comply with Article 93 of General Law of Electricity that states that the power distribution companies must compensate users with three hours of free power for every hour of blackout. The power companies have yet to compensate consumers for the first blackout hour.
The electric companies bill paying customers inflated prices, in order to compensate for those who do not pay for the service, in violation of article 110 of the general electrical laws.
Furthermore the sales of electricity by contracts cannot be more than 80% of the demand of the interconnected electrical system (SENI), which guarantees that the market spot buys 20% of the total. But in 2005 and between January and July of 2006 the reality was different. The sales of the market spot last year were 8.3%, and in the first seven months of this year they were 7.3%.
After a recent meeting to discuss the energy crisis, it was decided that the law should be implemented, which would penalize customers caught stealing electricity, but an analysis carried out by Bernardo Vega in Clave newspaper questions whether this solution is enough. He mentions how the counter-reform that called for the nationalization of two of the three electricity distribution companies during the Hipolito Mejia administration only increased the payroll, and that President Leonel Fernandez hasn't changed the payroll, he has instead just replaced PRD members with members of his PLD party.
The analysis also criticizes how instead of appointing two foreigners to head the nationalized companies, the government should have, under concession, given complete control to foreign companies.
Vega comments that a mafia has developed in the energy sector, which now even includes military personnel abusing their power to impede the collection of payment from the larger consumers of electricity, and when efforts are made to collect on a payment, the traditional call is then made to the Presidential Palace in order to have things left as is.
Vega mentions that during his first administration, President Fernandez signed the onerous Cogentrix plant agreement, which should never have received the support of the Inter-American Development Bank, he states. He mentions that the fuel oil plant bills the state without generating electricity. "Since it is not competitive, the government pays its owner, Goldman Sachs, US$60 million a year, without the plant even having to be turned on," he writes. If they are already benefiting from this type of agreement whereby they collect without generating power, why would Goldman Sachs be interested in investing in its conversion to natural gas to reduce its costs, as the government announced, asks Vega. He also wonders who will buy this plant and at what price.
He goes on to refer to the tender that was held for the installation of coal-fired plants that included terms of reference that might have scared off serious companies and was won by a pair of Asian companies that, to date, haven't even paid the first bond. It is presumed that they are pressing to obtain new terms of reference similar to those of Cogentrix. In his opinion, what would be correct would be to hold another tender with new terms of reference.
Vega concludes that with the help of God, despite what he points out above, if it could be achieved that these plants switch to natural gas instead of fuel oil, their production costs would be reduced, for the benefit of all, and there would be less local dependence on Chavez's geopolitical credit, because Venezuela does not produce natural gas.
As the Senate prepares for the selection of the electoral judges that will manage the 2008 presidential election, about 50 candidates have made their aspirations known.
The candidates for a seat on the Central Electoral Board (JCE) include members of the 1994 board (Aura Celeste Fernandez and Ramon Vallejo Santelises), part of what is considered the best JCE team ever put together. Members of the 1998 group like Ana Teresa Perez and Chito Asmar Sanchez have also been mentioned for possible selection. Present incumbents (2002-2006) Roberto Rosario, Rafaelina Peralta and Salvador Ramos, would like to continue in their posts.
Clave newspaper explains that the first step to receive the candidate forms, followed by an evaluation process and then the presentation of the pre-candidates to the Senate. Candidates for the JCE must be at least 35 years old, Dominican by birth or origin, and be a practicing lawyer with 12 years experience.
Reynaldo Pared Perez, president of the Senate, said that the number of JCE judges would not be modified for the selection process this time around. He said that there would continue to be nine, divided equally among the Disputes and Administrative chambers. A revision of the Constitution would have been necessary to make this change, he said. There had been proposals to cut the number of judges in half, as the increase in judges in no way contributed to a better JCE.
In today's El Caribe, Sociologist Ramon Tejada Holguin comments on the proposal by the new Attorney General Radhames Jimenez on the need to design a new method for fighting corruption. Tejada, who is a member of the Ethics Commission appointed at the start of the Fernandez administration, wonders if this means that the government will draw up new methods to fight corruption. "If I interpret what he said correctly, we need to go back to the drawing board. That is start with the egg, and hatch a new plan," he writes. He goes on to ponder, "That is, the struggle against corruption is about permanently designing plans that are not implemented, a plan for a building that will never be built."
"If the Attorney General will draft something new, is there any sense in the Ethics Commission? Or the Strategic Plan that was a minimum commitment, will it go into the garbage can? I don't know whether to laugh or cry," he concludes.
The ambassador of Colombia in the DR says that bilateral talks for a free trade agreement between the two countries will have to wait for negotiations about the implementation of DR-CAFTA and the FTA with the US and Colombia to conclude. In an interview with El Caribe, he said that the DR benefits from better lending conditions for financing of petroleum products. He explained the trade balance has always favored Colombia, because of the export of energy-generating products. He mentioned that Colombia sells coal to the DR.
The Chamber of Appeals of the Penal Court of Santo Domingo has ordered temporary imprisonment for Juan Ramon Carrera Costa and Noemi Martinez, and for their case to be tried in a criminal court. The couple is accused of abusing a minor. Judges Olga Herrera Carbuccia, Carmen Fortuna and Enrique Marchena revoked a decision by the instruction court that had discharged the couple on 21 July. The child division prosecutors took up the case of the 3-year-old boy, as reported on 26 July in DR1 Daily News.
Marisol Tobal, assistant prosecutor for children appealed against Judge Marcia Polanco's decision that absolved a father and stepmother of responsibility for abusing a child. Tobal said that the judge did not consider the proof provided by physicians who had treated the child. The child was removed from the care of his father and stepmother and returned to his biological mother who was provided with financial support. The medical reports show that the child had lesions on his buttocks, back and abdomen that were clearly caused by beating with a belt, as well as bruises caused by other objects. The examination also showed traces of serious past lesions. The medics denied that these could have been caused by a simple bicycle crash, as the parents were alleging. The case was discussed on TV and radio talk shows.
The contents of this webpage are copyright © 1996-2008. DR1. All Rights Reserved.