Dr. Jose Francisco Peña Gómez, president of the Partido Revolucionario Dominicano, the leading opposition party, criticized that government officers are choosing public works contractors in an "arbitrary" and "capricious" way. Peña Gómez, who is his party’s candidate for mayor of Santo Domingo in the 1998 election, criticized new Minister of Public Works Diandino Peña’s decision to personally choose the contractors. So called "grado a grado," or choosing contractors without a tender being called, was a common practice in the Balaguer administration that was criticized by the Partido de la Liberación Dominicana, when the latter was in the opposition.
