Nuria Piera, one of the most popular investigative reporters on Dominican TV, has done it again. Last Saturday, she reported that the National Council for the Handicapped (CONADI) could not develop programs to help the handicapped because all of its budget money went to pay salaries. The council was formed in 2000 through a political union of the PQD and PRD parties. Each month a RD$2.3-million payroll is disbursed to members of the PQD party and council employees, of which only one person is handicapped – council president, Monica Sosa. The staff of council sub-director Augustina Romero Arias includes her mother, two sisters, a foster-brother, a brother-in-law and a ?compadre?. Romero Arias was unable to cite a single council program to aid the handicapped, either in effect or development. Of the total 300 employees, there are 84 auxiliaries, 34 provincial coordinators (despite the fact there are only 31 provinces), 22 assistants, 19 secretaries, 19 technicians, 15 inspectors and 11 supervisors. Although the organization steered 24 vehicles through the tax exoneration process for customs duties, not one of these vehicles was designated for a handicapped person.
Meanwhile, the country?s rehab center, Rehabilitaci?n, run under the watchful eye of Do?a Mary de Marranzini, has been suffering through months of budget arrears.