The former mayor of Santo Domingo, Rafael Corporán de los Santos, said that he, like Dr Balaguer, is blind and mute and does not want to talk about the problem of refuse in Santo Domingo. Refuse collection in Santo Domingo has been contracted to a subsidiary of a former British company, Attwoods, now owned by a North American group, that receives RD$10 million a month for the work. There have been press reports that it is not providing the service as contracted and there are many rubbish dumps around the city, principally in the slum areas. While Rafael Corporán was responsible for bringing the company here, he later had serious differences with it and complained about its non-fulfillment of the contract, to the point that it was removed from the municipality’s supervision and came directly under the Presidency.