The head of the Budget Agency (Digepres) defended Abinader administration spending for advertising and propaganda during an interview on El Despertador of Channel 9.
As reported in Noticias SIN, José Rijo Presbot said that the expenses or “investments” in publicity are divided into three — publicity and propaganda, official communications, and promotion of the country. He said the promotion of the country “is something else.”
The official said that in 2017, the past government had spent RD$3.5 billion; in 2018 RD$4.69 billion and RD$5 billion in 2019.
In the current government, Rijo Presbot said that in 2021, the first complete year of the Abinader administration, RD$3.19 billion was spent. In 2022, RD$5.02 billion.
Rijo Presbot said the past government was not transparent on the use of the funds for advertising and propaganda. “There was what was called ‘other professional technical services’, where more than RD$7.5 billion were disbursed annually to pay advertisers, agencies, television channels, and contracts for services. When we add that up, the real advertising of the past government was between RD$7 billion to RD$8 billion and we have an average of RD$4 billion,” said the official.
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Noticias SIN
19 July 2023