Two economists believe that merely by limiting the spending of government officials the country could save RD$5 billion that could be invested in education and health. As reported in El Caribe, the economists from the Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Tributaria (CENIT), Jose Segura and Henry Hebrart, say the savings could come from a reduction in perks such as SUVs, cell phones, travel and other authorized spending for government officers. These types of benefits account for almost 2% of the GDP. ?This is without including the spending for employees who have three or four jobs,? they mention. According to El Caribe, Segura and Hebrart say that another measure to make government spending more efficient would be to consolidate government purchases, so as to avoid paying higher prices for lesser quantities. By their estimate the government pays 30% more than what it should on its purchases because orders are made independently from too many departments. Consolidating these purchases could save 0.5% of the GDP, say the economists. Furthermore, they feel greater efficiency could be achieved by merging government institutions that have the same objectives. They mentioned the successful merger of the export promotion office with the investment promotion office, which resulted in savings of RD$30 million.
The economists said that the tax reform proposal sent to Congress will not be successful because it only seeks to increase government revenues, not to control government spending. They mentioned that of 64 case studies on tax reform in other countries, only 14 were successful and these had in common the fact that they sought to increase efficiency in government spending.