Industrialist Celso Marranzini, the former president of the National Business Council (CONEP), has denounced the fact that the CDEEE receives “immense subsidies” from taxpayers, but pays salaries of RD$150,000 to consultants who sit on several boards of directors. Marranzini feels that the electricity corporation should handle itself as a company in bankruptcy, one that does not sell the electricity it serves to clients.
Speaking to reporters from Hoy, Celso Marranzini said he thought that this country should redefine the role of the state so that the administration of businesses is no longer within its functions.
With this in mind, he decried the fact that the Dominican Corporation of State-owned Electricity Enterprises (CDEEE), which is given “Immense subsidies” yet nevertheless we see it holding social functions and one has to ask, “How is this possible?”
Marranzini also said he was saddened by the fact that the CDEEE pays an advisor a salary of RD$150,000 each month. He said, “There are five councils of administration where each councilor earns more than a Minister of State, more than the President of the Republic, then it is not possible for a business to function under these conditions.” Marranzini is currently the president of Action for Basic Education (Educa), a not-for-profit organization.
He said that the CDEEE should behave under the criteria of a bankrupt entity that does not collect on what it sells, which is to say, the electricity is offers.
Going on to other ideas, Marranzini told the Hoy reporters that in order to solve the electricity problem “you do not have to reinvent a lot,” since everything is clear on this issue. He said that now is the best time to solve the electricity issues, because the price of oil had gone down, and certain measures could be taken in terms of the transparency of the cost of the electricity that is supplied.
Talking to a television audience on Channel 11’s Telematutino program, Marranzini said that the contracts covered by the Madrid Accords were a large part of the problem and that these contracts should have been revised some time ago.