“Transparent and competitive” are the words used to describe the proposed sale of shares the government holds in the power companies, including the recently reacquired “Edes”. The only companies not included in the sale are the hydroelectric companies. President Hipolito Mejia announced Decree 1035-03 yesterday, which sets the ball rolling for the eventual sale of the companies through the formation of a Special Electric Committee that will spend the next 90 days studying the legal reforms needed in order to allow the sale. The committee is headed by businessman Rafael Perello Abreu, president of the state power company CDEEE, and its council of directors includes Francisco Garrigo and Jack Zares. The committee will also include representatives from private business association CONEP and the engineers’ association CODIA. The government would hold on to 25% of the shares of each company involved and is open to seeking advice from the Inter-American Development Bank and the UASD (Autonomous University of Santo Domingo). This decision comes one month after the government unexpectedly announced its reacquisition of the Union Fenosa power distribution companies, which led to the freeze on disbursements from the World Bank and the IDB and left the IMF standby agreement on hold. The President described the reacquisition as an “urgent and temporary” measure in reaction to the unsustainable financial situation the companies were operating under. He said that the situation in the power sector has worsened since the previous government capitalized the state electricity companies. “It has been demonstrated that the inter-sector dependency model has not met the power sector’s objectives, which in many cases has deteriorated,” said President Mejia, who reminded that the private sector also has an important role to play.