Speaking at the Wednesday luncheon of the American Chamber of Commerce, Hipolito Mejia demanded to know what the Fernandez administration has done with RD$140 billion (around US$8.75 billion) which, he contends, it has collected while in office. "I don’t know what they spent so much money on, " he said to his prestigeous audience of corporate executives and expatriate managers. The PRD standard bearer also charged that the these funds were expended without passing through any budget process. "Do you think its healthy," he inquired, "that a single man, the president of the republic, can spend without accounting to anyone or explaining?" Mejia went on to outline his party platform, emphasizing agricultural and educational reform, more lower and middle income housing construction, reversing environmental degradation, and creating 500,000 new jobs, mostly for women and young people.
