The Ministry of Foreign Relations has responded to the recent Listin Diario articles on the high fees charged by Dominican consulates in Haiti and New York City. In regards to Haiti, the investigation showed that between 2015 and 2020, the five consulates that operate in Haiti (Port-au-Prince, Juana Mendez/Ouanaminthe, Anse-A-Pitre, Belladere and Cape Haitian) charged at least US$79.5 million (RD$3.5 billion) of which only US$11.6 million was deposited to the Ministry of Foreign Relations.
In response to the articles, the Ministry of Foreign Relations issued a press release indicating that later this year (2022) a pilot plan to make visa and passport issuing procedures more efficient will be implemented. An international public tender is underway. The Ministry of Foreign Relations said that the new service provider will enable greater efficiency in the reception of documents, follow-up, procedures and transparency of income, mainly for the issuing of visas and passports. The announcement follows the trend of the Abinader administration to entrust private third parties with services previously offered by the state.
According to the Ministry of Foreign Relations, contracting this third party will allow consular officials to focus on verifying regulatory compliance on the part of applicants, thus reducing response time. “One of the major advantages of this outsourcing of services is that it eliminates the interference of outsiders who in many cases charge exorbitant fees to users,” the letter states.
Focusing on fees, the Ministry of Foreign Relations says it is looking for alternatives to eliminate the traditional overcharges, the discretion in decision-making and disparity in fees among consulates in visas and passport issuing. The Listin Diario articles focused on the variability and high cost of visa issuing in Haiti and passport issuing in New York City.
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Listin Diario
25 April 2022