In an interview for the Listin Diario, influential former President Joaquin Balaguer said that the privatization of the energy sector in the DR has failed. In his opinion it would have been better to continue the slow privatization process he had started. (Contracts signed with private generators during the Balaguer administration were notorious for clauses that were unfavorable to consumer interests.) He had praise for the work of Radhames Segura. He felt it was better for the CDE to continue buying power from companies, privatizing generation first. He said that way there would have been many companies participating in the market. He said that the privatization of distribution has only complicated the problems. He says that the private companies are only interested in their profits. He said that today service is very bad, and billings are very high. [The main complaint of consumers is that despite the long blackouts, billings remain at the same levels or are increasing. Others cite that the main problem is that the government has no controls over the operations of the new private companies, and neither do these companies have competition.] Nevertheless, he said it is not such a big problem that it cannot be resolved. Contracts signed with private generators during the Balaguer administration were notorious for being unfavorable to consumer interests.
