The National Business Council (Conep) is expressing concern at the “crisis of confidence affecting the Judicial Branch.” The leading business group says that widespread public questioning of decisions by the Dominican courts is affecting public confidence in the country’s institutions and the Dominican state.
“This worsens when the perception is that the administration of justice does not fulfill its role and is an obstacle to investigations into administrative corruption in all its manifestations,” according to the statement published yesterday Monday 6 April 2015.
The business leaders warned that this has led to a situation where Dominican society is convinced that court decisions guarantee impunity for holders of political power and erode the system’s moral foundation, as well as questioning whether the law is equal for all, as enshrined in the Constitution.
Conep adds that all the transparency promotion work done by public institutions is rendered pointless. The business group advises the Judicial Branch to create “all institutional mechanisms and adopt measures to ensure internal and external independence of its diverse courts.
“The existence of a transparent public administration and the fight against administrative corruption should be a commitment for society in general and the state in particular, but very especially of the Judicial Branch,” said the statement.
The business leaders called for the judiciary to reflect and become aware of the impact that its decisions have had on the confidence in its performance and on the functioning of the state.
The statement comes in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision against hearing the corruption accusations against senator Felix Bautista and the former major of San Francisco de Macoris, Felix Rodriguez.
http://www.conep.org.do/es/2012/comunicaciones/6749/ante-la-crisis-de-confianza-en-el-poder-judicial.do