Economist, diplomat and businessman Bernardo Vega is rarely, if ever, funny. In today?s editorial piece in El Caribe, however, Vega exhibits just a wee bit of wit. Calling his piece ?It could have been worse,? he proceeds to show how the government could easily have spent another US$1.24 billion in foreign-loan money on everything from housing to toll booths. Vega also points that at least six concessions were left without congressional approval and says we were spared the railroads, overpasses and highways that lead to nowhere. That is the end of the funny part.
The sad thing, says Vega, was the approval of those loans that did get approval and which fall due within a short period of time with their lofty rates of interest. Vega points out that fortunes were made by the intermediaries of these loans, which have begun to complicate the negotiations with the Paris Club. And for the first time in Dominican history, during peace time, without any Cold War, part of our foreign debt was spent on military hardware: ships ($46 million), helicopters ($72 million), shipyards ($22 million) and technical schools, among other things. Last week, two more military loans were approved. Finally, Vega points his finger at such institutions as Eximbank from the USA and CESDE from Brazil as promoters of many of these loans as a way of enlarging their own country?s exports. All of this, concludes Vega, means more taxes.