Although approximately half of the buses belonging to the OMSA transport organization are out of service, the remaining 250-300 units were circulating yesterday, according to Hoy, helping Dominicans get to their jobs and back home again. An unnamed source told the newspaper that there should be 500 buses operating in Santo Domingo today and about 150 in Santiago, depending on what ?Ditren says,? a reference to Ignacio Ditren, the original head of OMSA in 1996 who was returned to the post this week by President Fernandez?s appointment. The source also denied that the former administrator of OMSA, Diogenes Castillo, had left many debts with suppliers unpaid, as was being speculated. By noon yesterday, however, hundreds of PLD sympathizers had gathered to taunt the OMSA workers, calling on them to resign and go home. In a long interview published in El Caribe, Ditren said that when he left OMSA in 2000, there were 600 buses and 2,800 employees ? about 4.7 employees per bus ? and one of his goals is to reach this proportion again. Currently there are 6,000 employees on the payroll at OMSA, a ratio of 20 employees per bus. When asked how many buses OMSA had, Ditren said he did not have exact figures but that many of the Pan American Games buses, complete with air-conditioning, were in service, while most of the Mercedes-Benz buses were not. According to the head of the transport service, the actual cost to ride a bus lies between RD$17 and RD$18 because there are only two hundred or so buses circulating and 926 drivers and collectors on the payrolls. The current fare for passengers is RD$5, which Ditren aims to maintain. Ditren said that in Santiago there are supposed to be 126 buses operating, but only 35 are presently on the streets. He said that in the coming days he would open the OMSA garages and parking lots to the press so they could see the state of the equipment for themselves.