PLD senator for La Romana Enrique Martinez said that the Senate needs to stop passing loans and immediately open an investigation into the legal owners and addresses of the companies with whom the government is negotiating loans and goods purchases. He said it is apparent that the government does not want transparency in regards to its borrowing. “The Senate has passed US$1.5 billion in loans in the first 11 months of the Mejia government,” he said, wondering how the country can take on more debt. He said that it is suspicious that the government does not want to borrow from the World Bank and the Interamerican Development Bank. “All loans are with supposed firms or Spanish banks. And all is as told by El Caribe newspaper (see http://www.dr1.com/daily/072501.shtml) because behind each loan there is something funny (“maco”), a great mafia. If an investigation is opened, big fish in the government will fall as will local and foreign businessmen,” he said. “The Senate is acting with great irresponsibility; it is not exercising its role as a supervisory body over the loans. There are loans that don’t even mention what they will be used for. They were approved without even being placed on the agenda,” he denounced.
