Economists Ernesto Selman and Guillermo Caram said yesterday, Sunday 25 August that the problems meeting the goal of building 10,000 classrooms this year – a campaign promise made by President Danilo Medina – will not be resolved by just opening a line of credit at the Banco de Reservas for the 192 engineers and contractors.
The economists say that the problems that need to be tackled are logistics, administrative management and the availability of the land where the schools will be built. In an article in today’s Hoy newspaper, Selman criticized the indebtedness taken on by the government and suggested setting up a trust fund for greater control and transparency of the funds disbursed to the engineers. Economist Nelson Suarez said that the situation has arisen because of the President’s attempts to spread the contracts out among many engineers who do not have the financial resources to finish such projects.