The Dominican Municipal League (LMD) yesterday denounced the national government for failing to send municipalities RD$70 million they were to receive from the national budget, which municipalities use to issue paychecks to their workers and to pay off bills and fulfill local commitments such as trash collection. Law 17/97 requires the National Treasury to remit funds on the 10th of every month to municipal governments; these funds, which usually actually arrive in municipal government hands on the 20th of each month, are used to pay salaries. LMD Under-Secretary-General Miguel Valenzuela asserted that the nation government’s tardiness is hurting some 50,000 municipal workers. The Central Bankís latest report on the Dominican economy, however, says that only municipal employees total only 22,656. Valenzuela says that in the past the funds occasionally arrived a day or two late, but never before has the end of the month arrived without the national government making the payment.
