The executive vice president of the American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham), William Malamud, spoke out against corruption at the recent AmCham luncheon, as reported in El Nuevo Diario. “There is something rotten in the Dominican Republic. The struggle against corruption has to be one for everyone; it is more than about laws. It is ethics,” he stated.
He made his statements prior to the talk by the guest speaker, the director of the administrative corruption prosecution agency (PEPCA), Laura Guerrero Pelletier.
During her presentation Guerrero said that corruption is a controversial and complex problem that affects all of society. She said that it was a serious threat to stable and equitable human development, and stated that its elimination needs to be a priority for everyone. She favored dismantling the pervasive culture of using public positions to obtain personal benefits.
During the luncheon, AmCham president Gustavo Tavares was critical of the new Notary Public Law 140-15. “The notary is a public function, not a profession. We cannot sacrifice all the efforts that we are making as a country to attract investments and boost trade by creating a law that clearly only benefits one sector, that of the notaries, and harms the rest of the nation, even the state,” he said. He said that the law establishes practices that are far removed from best practices and limits access for citizens, affecting judicial security. Tavares said that the law makes several transactions almost impossible because of the exorbitant rates and conditions that are established, which are not in line with the reality of the 21st Century.
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