Ricardo Ripoll and Eduardo Sanchez Tolentino (El Piro) of Somos Pueblo muckraking media are scandalized by the lack of security measures in handling Dominican passports at the Passport Agency. In a recent Somos Pueblo video, they provide evidence of the dilapidated boxes the Midas Red SRL company has used to deliver the passports. This is the same company that has caused a crisis at the passport agency since 2019, when not complying with delivery date nor requirements.
They accuse the company of a purchase without a tender, while the local procurement authorities are looking the other way. They raise the attention of Carlos Pimentel, of the Procurement Agency and former Vice President Milagros Ortiz Bosch of the Ethics Department.
Right now, there are three to six months long delays in Dominicans getting the passports for renewal or new passports.
The director of the passport agency is Digna Reynoso, wife of Alfredo Pacheco, president of the Chamber of Deputies and a top-ranking members of the ruling Modern Revolutionary Party (PRM).
Despite the major past problems, Reynoso recently approved a new order from Midas and excluded several reputable companies from participating in the tender for new passports.
Meanwhile, Miguel Surun, president of the Dominican Lawyers Guild, explained on El Despertador of Channel 9 with Ana Mitila Lora and Esteban Delgado that the recent tenders are taking place while the Abinader administration waits for the next government to launch what he calls the privatization of the passport agency under the public-private partnership scheme.
Surun said he has submitted a legal recourse against the privatization of the issuing of passports under Public Private Partnership Law 340-23. He said that to motivate the privatization, they worsened the service to make it take six months to get a passport. Ana Mitila Lora says that the passport, passports were not news because they could be renewed in even one day before the Abinader administration.
Surun says they have requested an investigation from the Attorney General Office to the tender process that excluded internationally recognized companies to benefit the company that has been questioned for bad track record in quality and delivery.
During the past administration of Danilo Medina and others, passports could be applied for and received in 24 hours or less.
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Somos Pueblo
El Despertador interview with Miguel Surun – 50 minutes
22 June 2023