The Dominican government chose to lease the lands and sugar mill facilities of the State Sugar Council (CEA) instead of finding capital investors. In order to do so, the state needs to make severance payments to 25,000 workers at a cost of RD$2,000 million to the state. The CEA also has pending on books RD$400 million owed in overtime and other employment payments. The Consejo de Reforma de la Empresa P?blica (CREP) has scheduled to lease the lands and sugar mills to the highest bidders. The CEA tender will take place on 29 July. As per the schedule, the government needs to resolve payment terms with the employees by 30 August. As of that date, it should not have anyone on payrole. It is estimated that the companies that will lease the lands for 30 year terms will not rehire 60% of the employees. With the leasing of the sugar mills and the lands, the state hopes to put a stop to the mega subsidies it has to grant every year in order to keep these operations going. It is estimated that the CEA will lose this year RD$1,300 to RD$1,500 million, almost US$100 million. Corruption and bad management has characterized the State Sugar Council throughout recent years. Today, the state’s 10 sugar mills are estimated to produce less than 80,000 tons of sugar, compared to the production of one private sugar mill, the Central Romana that is estimated to produce 250,000 to 300,000 tons of sugar this year, regardless of being hard hit by Hurricane Georges.
