DR1 Daily News - Dominican Republic

Yulibelys Wandelpool / Diario Libre

Lawyer Yulibelys Wandelpool warns of the amendment in the new Public Procurement and Contracting Law 47-25 that allows uncles and nephews and nieces of key government officials to compete for government contracts.

In her opinion piece in Diario Libre, she writes that the new law is a step forward in the modernizing of the state’s procurement system with the introduction of new tools for traceability, annual planning, and sustainability criteria. Yet she warns that “ a closer review of its provisions reveals a regulatory change that could weaken ethical safeguards in the contracting process: the removal of third-degree blood relatives, such as uncles and nephews, from the list of disqualified individuals.”

This change marks a departure from the now-repealed Law No. 340-06, which did prohibit contracting up to the third degree of...