Clave Digital online news service reports that Monsignor Agripino Nunez met with former President Hipolito Mejia to negotiate a new agreement with the Fernandez government. The Fernandez government needs the support of senators loyal to the former President in order to pass several bills that are part of the government’s financial restructuring plan. The rector of the PUCMM met with Mejia at his home last night to assist in the impasse regarding the passing of the bonds bill, as per agreed when the government signed the IMF letter of intent.
Furthermore, the Listin Diario reports that the senators of the PRD said they would approve today the bill that authorizes the Executive Branch to issue bonds for RD$3.8 billion to capitalize the Central Bank and the Banco de Reservas, the state commercial bank. Other bills sought by the government as part of a general financial restructuring plan, may still be put on hold.
As reported in Clave Digital, the online news service, the senators loyal to former President Mejia say that in the 2005 budget the government has not allotted the proceeds it would receive with the issuing of the internal bonds. The senators say that by approving these they would be giving the government a funds surplus. Likewise, the PPH/PRD senators would like to ensure that the bonds for RD$2.6 billion to pay government debt will not exclusively be allotted to pay debt contracted in the 1996-2000 past government of President Leonel Fernandez, but will also go to pay for debts contracted during the Mejia administration. They demand that the government present beforehand the list of debts it would be clearing with the internal bonds money. PRD Senator Hernani Salazar, a strong advocate of the reelection of former President Mejia, whose call supposedly halted the last congressional session when the funding would have been approved, says the opposition senators would under no circumstances issue a blank check to the government.
As reported, the senators also say that while the US$300 million to make the coupon payments on the sovereign bonds has been included in the 2005 budget, at the same time the government has just sent to Congress a bill to capitalize the same interest payment.
The PPH senators said they are willing to approve the bills to renegotiate the US$500 million and US$600 million bonds restructuring but they have also requested a meeting with the IMF to ascertain if the government is fulfilling obligations to continue the legal procedures against those responsible for the banking fraud of 2003 and if the government is collecting on the debt the Central Bank assumed from the top ranking officers of collapsed banks. The source told Clave Digital that if the Central Bank collected on the RD$4 billion registered as owed by the Listin Diario, as Salazar stated last week, then the internal bonds total could be less.