In Diario Libre today, Tuesday 19 March, editor Ines Aizpun focuses on a key issue for Dominicans n the lack of accountability in government. The contracts traditionally signed by Dominican government officials that go on to become an object of regret are at the center of this malaise, she writes. These contracts are often heavily slanted in favor of private companies against the best common interests. In retrospect, Dominican taxpayers are asked to pay for the broken dishes when the contracts need to be broken and heavy penalties applied.
Thinking ahead, Ines Aizpun writes that the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) has announced that its report on mining in the Loma de Miranda area is due in April. Environmentalists in the Dominican Republic, including some Ministry of Environment officials, are opposed to the mining proposal. The Academy of Sciences has issued detailed, scientifically based documentation against the proposed mining of its resources. Nonetheless, the Dominican government chose to ignore its own experts and called in the UNDP for “an unbiased opinion.”
She also writes about the Barrick Gold case, which she says will follow its course and has united Dominicans against it (and more so after the infractions that have been uncovered recently), while Dominicans look on as government institutions enthusiastically applaud the efforts to encourage changes in the contract that they themselves drafted and approved.
“These multinationals have exploited Dominican land because the Dominican government (and no other) has given them the corresponding permits and charges agreed upon taxes,” she writes.
And then she makes the point: “It is not only in mining. The highways – that of Samana now, but before that managed by Codacsa – were based on construction, maintenance and exploitation contracts that the authorities signed.”
“Who should we be more mad at? The multinational or the local authority that has signed those contracts?” she asks.
“Is it a matter of illegal commissions that someone is collecting or is it a matter of incapacity, or that the incompetent that approve monstrosities that later have to be revoked, contracts that in international arbitration courts we have been incapable of defending?”
She poses the question: “Why are we not standing in picket lines and protests before those who negotiated with the Barrick? Why has the Dominican government not been clear on its position on whether the exploitation of Loma Miranda is good or bad?”
She ends by asking: “Why don’t we take this discussion out of the context of patriotism and take it where it belongs, to asking for accountability, and legal accountability if this applies, to the geniuses that draft contracts that are so harmful for the country?”
http://www.diariolibre.com/opinion/2013/03/19/i375880_los-contratos.html
The Minister of Industry and Commerce who signed the contract for the Dominican government was appointed to be Minister of Interior and Police in the Medina administration.
Acento.com.do carries a 2009 video where former President Leonel Fernandez describes the contract signed with the Barrick Gold as a model contract.
www.acento.com.do/index.php/news/60228/56/Discurso-de-Leonel-Fernandez-alabando-contrato-con-Barrick-ViDEO.html
www.7dias.com.do/index.php/noticias/7060/57/Participacion-Ciudadana-reprocha-a-Aduanas-que-no-antes-no-verificara-cargamentos-de-la-Barrick#.UUiMCKVurww