Delia Ferreira, chair of Transparency International, called for Dominicans to become more involved to reduce government corruption. “More information, more integrity, less impunity and less indifference; those are the four pillars with which our countries would overcome the stigma of corruption they bear,” she told El Dia journalists during an interview. Ferreira visited Santo Domingo for exchanges with their local partner, Citizen Participation, and for talks and other activities from 19 to 21 February 2019.
During the interview at El Día, she explained that corruption is everywhere, and the difference is in how the institutions and people in different countries react to it. “The day that citizens realize that the money that has gone to corrupt hands is what is missing in schools, they will ask more of the political parties and these will have to present other candidates,” she said.
When asked about the Dominican judiciary handling of the US$92 million Odebrecht bribes scandal, she criticized that the financing of electoral campaigns and public works by the Brazilian construction company were not included in the file by the Attorney General. “This means a thorough investigation of the case has not been undertaken,” she stated. She described corruption in the Dominican Republic as “structural and systemic”. She remarked there is complicity to evade corrections.
She observed that independence is needed in the judicial system, better legal tools and resources. She also criticized the concentration of power in the present Dominican government.
Ferreira said that the Corruption Perceptions Index published by Transparency International is a tool used by investors when considering a country. For Dominicans administrative corruption is the biggest obstacle to doing business, followed by high taxes.
The 2018 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) published on 29 January 2019, by Transparency International shows the Dominican Republic improved one point, moving from 29 to 30 in the ranking. The DR is in 129th position and is listed 23rd of 31 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. This places the country in the bottom third of the most corrupt, well below the average score that is only 43. In the Americas, the DR only ranked higher than Bolivia, Honduras, Paraguay, Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Haiti and Venezuela.
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El Dia
21 February 2019