2019News

Oxfam reports on low social investment

According to “Fiscal Autopsy,” a new report issued by Oxfam under its Democracy and Citizenship Program (DevCi), the Dominican Republic has the third lowest social investment in the region, only behind Haiti and Guatemala. The report says that social investment in the country should be between 11.9% and 14.5% of GDP for the year 2020, but the official projections show that social investment will scarcely reach 8.2% of GDP for this year.

The investigation discovered that the Dominican budget has severe limitations when it comes to reporting on spending on goods and services. The report mentions that at the end of the fiscal year 2018, of 165 public institutions managed by the central government, some 73.3% (121 institutions) did not account for successfully executing their assigned budget.

The report was presented by an official of the Democracy and Citizenship Program, Rafael Jovine, who also criticized the average estimated cost of corruption in the country at 1.1% of GDP. In 2018, he said, excluding the cases of rescuing banks, the average annual cost of corruption rose to RD$30,883 million, equivalent to 0.8%.

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Listin Diario

30 October 2019