A study by the Audit Office and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) has exposed weaknesses and violations of the law in the use of public resources in most of the local governments and municipal districts across the country.
The investigation also shows weaknesses or an absence of mechanisms for recording income and expenditure according to the budget classification manual they use, which leads to inconsistent financial information and prevents the finances they receive from being monitored.
Reportedly, in December 2012 the 37 municipalities that were analyzed had a budget of RD$19,165 million pesos, which is equivalent to 4.7% of the total government expenditure that year.
In the case of the municipal districts, the study shows that they had around RD$2,962 million pesos under administration.
Audit Office president Licelot Marte de Barrios and UNDP representative Lorenzo Jimenez de Luis presented the study. Dominican Municipal Federation president Juan de los Santos also attended the presentation.
Marte de Barrios said that another weakness that was detected was a huge inconsistency in the salaries received by local government employees and that they did not comply with the minimum salary level established for the public sector. Average salaries ranged from RD$1,500 in Pepillo Salcedo (Montecristi) to RD$50,492 in Higuey in Altagracia province.
In 28 local governments and 79 municipal districts the average employee salary was less than RD$5,000.
www.listindiario.com/la-republica/2013/10/1/294184/Hay-inconsistencia-en-informacion-financiera-de-ayuntamientos-del-pais