The director of El Nuevo Diario, Persio Maldonado, said on Thursday during his participation in the Annual Conference of the Inter-American Network on Government Procurement (INGP) taking place 28-30 October 2015 at the Crowne Plaza, that the Dominican political class has not yet discovered the great benefit of doing things right, and ignores the fact that good deeds can be transformed into political capital with huge multiplier effects for society.
The editor said that to do things well will always give government and by extension, politicians, a greater capacity to do the things that will set them apart n and as a result government officials and politicians can reduce the investment in creating a positive public image, while maintaining the public’s trust and support in the political arena.
Maldonado is coordinator of the Seer Commission for the OPRET that is responsible for the construction of the Santo Domingo Metro.
Maldonado considers that political will is key to the success of achieving transparency and control of corruption.
Maldonado deplored the current levels of impunity in the Dominican Republic and says that the work of overseeing the actions of the state is complicated.
He said that in the country there is apparently no fear of the law, “because we live in a regime without consequences. We have draconian laws, but these laws are often undermined by a lack of enforcement or by unusually flexible interpretations by judges”.
“In this country, we have to always challenge ourselves to ask: “why do it wrong, if we can get it right?”, he said.
Montalvo said that efforts for public oversight are not sufficient to control corrupt practices in government. He said the protocols are limited to monitoring the implementation of procurement contracts for goods and services, whose processes can be well documented. But there are aspects of government transactions that leave open possibilities for corruption, including how government services are paid for.
Montalvo commented that payments should not be at the discretion of public officials and suggested implementing a fiduciary system where banks would make payments once the contractor concludes his contractual obligations.
Maldonado favored streamlining government processes, eliminating duplication of many institutions that handle the overlapping functions that make government processes complex, bureaucratic, inefficient and prone to corruption and influence peddling.
The Annual Conference of the Inter-American Network on Government Procurement (INGP) is a highly regarded forum for dialogue, exchange of ideas, organizational and administrative capacity. The INGP has become the most relevant forum for technical discussions on the promotion of progress in development and public procurement in the Americas.
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