Santo Domingo province senator candidate for the PRM coalition of parties, Antonio Taveras Guzmán criticized that the government has cut RD$2.4 billion off the budget for public works in the Santo Domingo province for 2020.
During a working meeting with the deputies of the Modern Revolutionary Party (PRM), Taveras Guzman said that from RD$19.7 billion allocated in the 2019 budget for works in the province, the chapter was reduced to RD$17.26 billion for 2020.
“Had the province maintained the same participation in the total public investment of the 2019 budget, the 2020 budget allocation should have been RD$22.32 billion instead of RD$17.26 billion,” said Taveras.
After his meeting with the PRM deputies, Taveras Guzmán lamented that once again, the province of Santo Domingo is being sacrificed to finance debt and electoral projects of the central government. He criticized that the current senator, who aspires to be re-elected for the fourth time, says nothing about it, in a clear demonstration of disloyalty to her voters.
Taveras also defined as abusive that while the total budget of central government expenditures grows by 12.3% from RD$765.45 billion (2019) to RD$861.07 billion (2020), or RD$95.62 billion more, the Santo Domingo province budget will barely increase by 0.04%. “This is a slap in the face for people and a major push for poverty,” he said.
He said that, according to the United Nations Development Program, the province’s human development indicators barely reach 0.432, classifying it as a “lower middle” income zone and only ranked #27 out of 32 provinces in the last reading of 2016.
“Even worse,” said Taveras, “if we look at the historical evolution since 2010, the province has clearly regressed from 22nd position in 2010 to 27th position today, which implies that poverty advances threatening its inhabitants,” he said.
Antonio Taveras comes from the business world. Before entering politics, he served as the president of the Herrera Industrial Association.
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Z101 Digital
6 November 2019