Today’s Diario Libre, Tuesday 25 March examines the excessive number of vice consuls, assistants and advisors appointed by the government at Dominican embassies and consulates overseas.
The country has 95 vice consuls in the United States, 36 of them in New York as well as 102 assistants, 54 in New York. The vice consuls have a monthly salary of US$1,750, and the assistants US$920 a month, plus allowances which add up to four times this amount, as reported in Diario Libre.
According to the staff list published by the Ministry of Foreign Relations, there are 21 vice consuls and 32 assistants in Miami. In Spain, 34 vice consuls and 49 assistants. In Madrid there are 11 vice consuls and 28 assistants.
The number of Dominicans working in embassies and consuls overseas in much higher than countries with higher populations such as Mexico that employs 33 diplomats at its embassy in the United States and 15 at the United Nations (UN). The Dominican Republic has 62 on the UN embassy payroll, including 10 deputy ambassadors with salaries of US$3,000 a month, 13 minister counselors receiving US$2,000, and 21 advisors receiving US$1,600.
Deputy Minou Tavarez Mirabal, who chairs the Chamber of Deputies Foreign Relations and International Cooperation Commission, said that the overseas service should be reorganized and a new bill would need to be sent to Congress on the subject because the previous one has expired.
www.diariolibre.com/noticias/2014/03/25/i540731_excesiva-cantidad-diplomticos-gener-crisis-las-embajadas.html