In two consecutive readings on Friday, the Senate approved the 2003 National Budget of RD$83 billion, the same total requested by the government, without any major changes.
El Caribe newspaper reports that to get the congressmen to approve the budget, the Executive Branch nevertheless had to redistribute RD$62 million among non-governmental agencies mostly belonging to the legislators themselves. Rafael Molina Morillo, of Hoy newspaper, said that one senator alone has 57 non-governmental organizations under his management. El Caribe announced that the government allocated RD$23 million to the Administrative Secretariat of the Presidency itself.
The addendum to the Budget also increases funding to city governments by 1 percent, or RD$689 million.
The president of the Chamber of Deputies convened her legislators back to work on Wednesday, 15 January. The budget is item No. 1 on the agenda.
By order of the Executive Branch, Congress will remain in session. The sessions were scheduled to break last Friday, however the government has ordered the session to resume on 15 January and close again on 15 February.
