The Dominican Republic need pay US$100,000 in penalties to international financial organizations for loans taken by the past government that will not be disbursed. Vicente Bengoa said that the internal and external debt of the government surpasses US$13 billion. He said that the government has notified the US government agency Exim Bank that they will not be using several approved loans, and instead prefer to pay the penalties. He said that there are loans that do not make sense and cannot be deemed a priority, while others are just projects that call for the import of non-essential merchandise. As reported in Hoy newspaper, Bengoa recently stated that the contracted foreign debt was of US$10.92 billion, while the disbursed foreign debt was of more than US$7 billion (for these the country has to pay interest charges). He said that the value increased as the government uncovered that several loans taken on by the Mejia government officers had not been registered by the Ministry of Finances or the Technical Secretariat.