According to an item in El Siglo newspaper, the Consejo Estatal del Azucar has rehired government sugar mill administrators to serve as coordinators of the transition period between state enterprise and private management. Salaries of these administrators were increased from RD$26,000 to RD$30,000. The administrators had recently received their severance payments. The administrators are in charge of CEA affairs at the Rio Haina, Barahona, Porvenir-Consuelo-Quisqueya, Santa Fe, Boca Chica, Amistad, Montellano, Ozama sugar mills and the Melazas Dominicanas molasses plant. El Siglo reports that the CEA has also rehired many other employees. The ten mills were leased to the private sector in September, but the Commission for the Reform of Public Enterprises (CREP) took three months to actually hand them over to the private companies. Four consortiums assumed the control of the practically abandoned state sugar mills in December. Of these, five of the ten mills are already producing sugar.
