President Luis Abinader spoke to the nation on Sunday, 30 January 2022 at 7pm to announce the Executive Branch would remove the bill now in the Senate regarding the creating of the Punta Catalina Trust to manage the 752 MW Punta Catalina coal-fired power plant.
The bill for the Punta Catalina Trust was submitted to the floor together with the Pedernales Trust and both were approved in a fast-tracked unanimous vote. The Punta Catalina Trust is based on a contract that concedes full control of the government-built power plant to private operators for 30 years. Several electricity and law experts promptly spoke up against the contract that had the strong backing of President Luis Abinader and Energy Minister Antonio Almonte. The government had argued the intent is to depoliticize the operation of the power plant, yet the contract establishes that the President appoints the all-powerful Technical Committee.
After details of the contract were aired on social media, the President announced the bill would be sent to be discussed in the Economic and Social Council and later in the Senate. Likewise, President Abinader announced that the government would submit a public trust bill to Congress on 27 February 2022. At present, the contract submitted is based on the Trust Law 189-11 that was created for real estate trusts, not for public ventures.
Moreover, President Luis Abinader said that the results of the technical audit ordered to Punta Catalina would be shared with the public.
The President is reacting to the generalized feeling against the trust superstructure proposed for the management of the power plant that would add major costs to the operation and not necessarily be an improvement over what exists at present, whereby professional managers have been hired under the supervision of the Ministry of Energy and the Ministry of Hacienda.
Once the scandal broke in the press, Charlie Mariotti, spokesperson for the Dominican Liberation Party (PLD), the largest opposition party, and Guillermo Moreno, of Alianza Pais went public criticizing the contract. PLD and Alianza Pais deputies had voted yes.
It was later reported, that the deputies had only read the favorable recommendations by the Chamber of Deputies committee and not the contract. The contract had been sent to the Chamber of Deputies in October 2021. National District deputy Jose Horacio Rodríguez, of Alianza Pais admitted he had not read the contract when voting yes. Now, Rodríguez is in favor of the bill returning to the Presidency for corrections.
José Santana Suriel, who presides the Hacienda Committee of the Chamber of Deputies that had issued the favorable report on the contract, said that the National Congress cannot amend contracts signed by the Presidency, as reported in Diario Libre on 28 January 2022. Legislators can only approve or reject these contracts. The contract was deposited in the Chamber of Deputies in October 2021. Suriel said that the committee reviewed the contract and found it favorable and thus issued the positive report to the floor.
The rush to pass the bill could have come because another trust, the Pedernales Trust, was included in the package. President Luis Abinader was traveling to Fitur in Spain where he would hold important meetings with possible investors in tourism in Pedernales.
Read more:
Presidency
Hoy
El Nuevo Diario
Listin Diario
Diario Libre
Diario Libre
Recent social media video on the contract
DR1 News
31 January 2022