While the government announced the renegotiation of the current contracts with the independent power providers (IPPs) last Saturday, an announcement that included a US$500 million commitment for 2006, the situation continued without any solution to the current crisis. The plan, debated during a meeting headed up by President Leonel Fernandez, includes a general agreement to be formalized this week that that will include transmission, generation and payment of the debts. As reported in Listin Diario, the meeting at the Casa de Campo resort was aimed at paying the debts owed to the generators and studied a plan to audit the debts by an international firm. According to El Caribe, the meeting ended without reaching any concrete decisions and the same statement from the principal attendees: The government was to renegotiate the contracts and the distributors insist on more efficient collection of the electricity bills. The government put forward three ideas during the seven-hour session. First, the payment of the bills from the generators for this year. Second, payment for the debt that was frozen in December of 2004. Third, payment for connection rights by the generators belonging to the CDEEE. Still, the private sector was not bending on the renegotiation, and Rolando Gonzalez, the head of the Haina Electricity Generating Company, told reporters that there was no reason to revise the contracts that were, after all, signed for long-term guarantees.