President Luis Abinader and the now ruling Modern Revolutionary Party (PRM) campaigned promising rule of law. Technically, the Presidency is sticking to the promise by submitting a bill to change the law that rules the National Institute of Potable Water and Sewage (Inapa). The Inapa law establishes that the executive director needs to be an engineer. Abinader has named lawyer Wellington Arnaud to the position. The move by the government is law-abiding, but thousands are questioning whether it is ethical.
The announcement of the naming of Arnaud has met with major opposition. Many ask if the now ruling party did not have enough qualified engineers from which to choose to direct the nation’s aqueduct and sewage agency. Arnaud is a son of the late PRD politician Winston Arnaud. He is a graduate in law from the Santo Domingo Catholic University and has a masters in political science from the National University Pedro Henríquez Ureña. He was a deputy representing district #1 of the National District for 2012-2020.
Lawyer Emmanuel Esquea was prompt to criticize the decision. In a tweet, he stated: “I feel a pain in my soul! I have fought all my life for things to be different! Change a law to benefit a person? Where is the independence of Congress?”
News analyst Ricardo Nieves blasted the decision. On. 28 August, Nieves tweeted: “The Inapa thing: A brutal blunder, a tremendous opportunistic maneuver. I don’t know how the PRM can explain that institutional outrage. A congressional scam. And Wellington Arnaud, so young, will he happily take the position?”
Nieves in his “Café con Nieves” commentary remarked that this is the same type of action that the PRM politicians had spent years criticizing. “This is the 21st Century. What you criticized so much, you now repeat?” He said that President Abinader should veto the bill, or Arnaud should not accept the position. He highlighted: “The PRM has lots of engineers and professionals. You don’t have to change the law for a person. It is abusive.”
The president of the Dominican Association of Engineers and Architects (Codia), Francisco Marte also protested. Marte said the amendment of Article 7 of Law 5994, of 1 December 1962 so that Wellington Arnaud can be appointed as executive director of that institution was a “stab in the back” of engineering professionals.
So far, as of Saturday, the government was sticking to the appointment. The government argument is that Arnaud has the qualifications and political savvy to draft the public-private partnerships to build new aqueducts and reconstruct others.
The government says that the naming of Arnaud is in an interim capacity. “The projects that will be executed through public-private partnerships require the legal, managerial and political training of Arnaud, who is a lawyer,” stated a release from the government.
“Wellington Arnaud did not request or demand to be a director of Inapa. The government understands that he is the ideal person to execute the plans conceived for the water sector,” the government explained in the press notice.
It reports that Arnaud’s capacity was put to the test in only 12 days when he put into operation the aqueducts that were affected after the passage of the storm Laura in Barahona, Azua, Higüey and Pedernales.
The Chamber of Deputies approved the bill that modifies Article 7 of Law 5994, of 1 December 1962, which created the National Institute of Potable Water and Sewerage (Inapa) so that Arnaud can be designated as the executive director of that institution.
In the statement issued on Saturday, the government explained that for the public-private partnerships to be a success, it is necessary to “change the requirements and capacities in the management of Inapa. It is in this spirit that the government sought the amendment of the law that created Inapa.
“Those who criticize the initiative do not realize the spirit behind it is none other than to satisfy the demand many communities have for an aqueduct or reparations to their aqueduct,” the statement reads.
“The amendment of the law will make possible the execution of a definitive plan to modernize Inapa… We invite the whole country to follow the actions to be taken by Arnaud, because the right thing to do is to judge his actions and not to prejudge his appointment,” the government stated in the notice.
The appointment is not final. The PRM-majority Senate has yet to approve the change to the law to accommodate the appointment. There is still time for Abinader to veto the bill if it passes in the Senate. Arnaud himself could decide not to take the position. Or, this could set a precedent whereby the PRM, now in the position as ruling party in the Executive Branch and the Legislative Branch, takes advantage of its majority to impose what it decides.
Read more in Spanish:
Listin Diario
El Dia
Hoy
El Caribe
Cafe con Nieves
30 August 2020