The director of the Metropolitan Transort Authority (AMET), Hamlet Hermann said that the government has strangled his department ever since four months ago President-elect Hipólito Mejía praised his work and said that he would confirm him in the post if he won the election, which he did. Hermann said that the government is four months in arrears on budgetary allotments to AMET. Recently, Hamlet Hermann told the press that the government investment in the OMSA busses was a mistake and that the bus transport service should have been privatized instead. Hermann criticized that the government established a public enterprise at a time it was privatizing public entities. Hermann opposed that the government spent RD$800 million to buy busses with government guarantees that were later distributed among small groups of persons. OMSA operates the public transport systems in Santiago and Santo Domingo. The OMSA service is considered one of the achievements of the Fernández government as citizens can enjoy comfortable and safe bus service on long routes.
