It used to be easy. The Presidency sent the Complementary National Budget Bill to Congress and the PLD-majority Chamber of Deputies and Senate would rubberstamp whatever the Executive Branch had decided. Now, with the split of legislators loyal to former President Leonel Fernández, and the polls showing the opposition party Modern Revolutionary Party (PRM) ahead in the campaign for 2020 elections, things are different in Congress. The Medina administration does not have all the needed votes to get its wishes immediately.
Now opposition legislators say the bill needs to be modified in the name of better reflecting the public interest.
On Tuesday, the president of the Chamber of Deputies, PLD deputy Radhamés Camacho announced he was sending the Complementary National Budget Bill 2019 to a special committee.
Explaining the PRM position on the La Cuestión radio talk show on La Super 7 (107.7FM) on 13 November 2019, economist Andrés Astacio said that the bill is irregular. He said the complementary budget initially was created so the government could decide how to the use surplusses. Over the years, the supplementary budget became a mechanism for reshuffling resources among government departments when there was a deficit.
Astacio said on the radio program that the government should instead be reducing spending. He said PRM legislators do not agree with the transferring of resources allocated to pay works contracted by the Ministry of Public Works and Office of Supervisory Engineers of the Presidency (OISOE).
Astacio said the government is also asking for approval for an increase in government debt to pay US$1.7 billion to providers to government power distribution companies and power generators. He criticized that has drafted the bill relieves Congress from its responsibility of sanctioning the loans.
Astacio insists the government could cut spending. He said, for instance, that government savings could come from eliminating 57 redundant government entities.
Read more in Spanish:
Hoy
14 November 2019