The Executive Branch submitted to the National Congress a draft loan with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) for US$400 million to finance the Program for Sustainability and Efficiency of the Electrical Sector II. According to the “Technical Cooperation Abstract” of loan contract number 4649-OC-DR, the beneficiary entity of this loan would be the Dominican Corporation of State Electric Enterprises (CDEEE).
In the request for loan approval to the IDB, Finance Minister Donald Guerrero spoke of improvements in the operational efficiency of the government-owned Electricity Distribution Companies (EDE). He also mentioned the loan would assist in bringing about a reduction in central government subsidies, address institutional weaknesses and adjust tariffs that do not cover costs.
Proposed actions call for supervising the accounts to increase transparency, improving supervision, implementing a system to monitor commitments and goals to reduce losses and operating costs of the EDE, increasing efficiency in the management of electricity demand, significantly improving operational and financial efficiency in electricity distribution and corporate management of distributors, among others. Electricity distributors in the Dominican Republic are mostly operated by the central government. The exception is the power distribution in most of La Altagracia province.
At the time of the signing of the IDB contract, the electricity generation matrix in the Dominican Republic is 13% coal, 32% natural gas, 40% fossil fuels, 13% hydropower, and 2% wind and solar renewable energy.
Nuria Piera in her investigative reports has unveiled widespread wasteful spending at the
EdeNorte power distribution company. News reports have indicated the high wages and excessive number of employees at the EdeSur, EdeNorte, and EdeEste power distributors.
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21 October 2019