El Siglo newspaper publishes the story of a former director of the Dominican Social Security Institute (IDSS), Sabino Baez that over a 10-month period irregularly charged to his government credit card RD$736,000 in goods and services. The story of corruption in government is another of a long list that usually appears at the time of change of government and reveals nothing more than the lack of controls existent in government to ensure the adequate spending of tax payer monies. Most of the charges were for clothes, restaurant bills, supermarket and entertainment expenditures. The director during his travels made charges for these items to France, Spain, Panama, El Salvador, Mexico and Miami. The news story reports of his bills at the Gap, Bostonian, Corte Ingles and Galeries Lafayette stores. Of the total RD$418,000 were charges in pesos and US$18,734 in dollars made during trips abroad. The position had an allotment of RD$15,000 a month for expenditures. An analysis of the expenditures says that while the restaurant bills could be justified as well as the purchase of gifts, there is no justification for the supermarket bills. The same news story also refers to irregular charges made by the secretary of the organization, Angela Mendez de Garrido, who had an allotment of RD$5,000 for expenditures, and charged RD$97,481 (RD$72,89 pesos and US$1,446 dollars) during a five month period.
