Speaking for the National Business Council (Conep), executive committee member Marisol Vincens is challenging the government’s naming the memorandum of understanding signed between the Public Electricity Corporation (CDEEE) and the private electricity company, AES, as an “electricity pact”. The president of the Conep Energy Committee said that the MOU violates previous agreements signed into the drafting of the law for the National Development Strategy 2030 (END), as reported in Diario Libre.
The government announced the signing of an agreement with AES Dominicana for the investment of US$800 million to build a coal-fired plant in Itabo, Haina with capacity for generating 300 megawatts. Vicens said that the agreement should have been passed through the Social and Economic Council (CES), the consulting body established in the 2010 Constitution. She said that the deadline for signing the Electric Pact had expired on 26 January. “The authorities have preferred to sign individual agreements and that goes against the legal mandate,” she stated. Vicens expressed concern at what she described as the absence of transparency in regard to the agreements and says that they should not be signed until an electricity pact is harmonized as established in Article 35 of the National Development Strategy 2030 Law.
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