The Listin Diario reports that the Codetel has cut phone service to the Education Ministry, in view of a RD$20-million debt to the company. Julio Cordero, administrative chief at the ministry, says that they requested a payment from the budget office for RD$8 million to cover last year, but have not received any response. This year RD$12 million is due.
Cordero had earlier said the ministry only received 60% of its 2003 allotments. The Listin Diario says today that of the RD$11.48-million allotment, the education department has only received RD$6.7 million – or 58.6%. As 2003 winds to a close, and the Christmas wage is soon to be factored in, the Education Ministry will have received only 70% of its allocated funds, at a time when inflation is eating into the real costs. As of March, the education department, headed by Vice President and PRD Presidential candidate for 2004 Milagros Ortiz Bosch, owed a sum of RD$42 million to private schools that accepted students on ministry scholarships. A RD$1.8-million program to rent 200 direly-needed locations has not yet been funded. Ortiz Bosch took a leave of absence from the Education Ministry to campaign for the PRD nomination.