During yesterday’s expanded Cabinet meeting held yesterday at the Presidential Palace, President Leonel Fernandez said that the country has been plundered several times and that the patience of the Dominican people is wearing thin, as reported in Hoy newspaper. In a speech he read during the meeting, the President said that he will strive for his administration to remain unsoiled or discredited by actions of officials who have not been able to understand that their responsibility is sacred. He said that he has come to government to consolidate democratic institutions and reaffirm values and principles.
Legal advisor to the President, Cesar Pina Toribio said a decree was forthcoming with mechanisms aimed at controlling state sector purchases and contracting and making these more transparent. As explained, the provisions are contained in a bill the Executive Branch has sent to Congress.
Fernandez said that he could not afford to fail on this count. This bill establishes that tenders are needed prior to the government purchasing goods and services or contracting public works.
He said he is entrusting all matters connected with the fight against corruption to the recently created National Ethics Commission, including designing policies, measures and preventive dispositions and investigating and sending to justice any cases where corruption is suspected.
President Fernandez sent the United Nations Convention Against Corruption, dated 10 April 2003, for approval by the Senate. He also issued Decree 252-05 whereby 29 April will now be known as the National Day of Citizen Ethics.