Frederic Emam Zade, the director of economic development for the Fundacion Global Democracia y Desarrollo (the think-tank research center presided over by President-elect Leonel Fernandez) alerts to potential problems ahead until the government changeover. Emam Zade says that measures must be taken to prevent a repeat of the massive sacking of government assets that occurred in 1986 in the interim between the PRD government of Salvador Jorge Blanco and the PRSC government of Joaquin Balaguer. This pillaging not only involved irregular distribution of government property but also important government documents. ?In numerous government offices filing cabinets were received empty, and it was never clear whether it was that the outgoing government did not archive important documents or whether they had taken them with them so as not to leave traces of what it did not want to be known,? says Emam Zade. He also cautions that during the previous PRD transition, the outgoing government paid many debts to friends using money not backed by reserves (?inorganicos?), leaving a virtual time bomb of excess money in circulation for the new government to confront, and affecting the purchasing power of Dominicans.
Emam Zade urges any government employees who witness this happening to denounce such acts to the appropriate authorities and to the press if they do not trust the authorities.
He warns that any disorder during the transition period could potentially penalize the government?s own partisans who are presently employed in public offices. Emam Zade says that if the PRD legislators go through with their campaign threat not to approve any fresh resources to the government, the new administration will have to resort to cutting current expenditures and, above all, the ?hypertrophied bureaucracy,? thus affecting the political clientele of the PRD.