President Hipolito Mejia justified the creation of new government jobs on the grounds that the privatization of public enterprises eliminated thousands of job opportunities. President Mejia denies the increase in government employees. "No, there has not been an increase. Everything has gone as planned," he said. But he explained, "Since we don’t have the Dominican Corporation of State Enterprises (CORDE), nor the sugar company, then something had to be given to the poor," referring to the privatization of state enterprises. Past governments padded the payrolls of those institutions with people who were owed political favors. The director of the National Budget, Ernesto Perez Cuevas, also justified the increase in government expenditures for personnel costs saying the new totals reflect the 10% increase in wages that took place in January 2001. He also says there have been increases in personnel needed for schools, hospitals and pharmacies. He said there are about 310,000 government employees of which 280,000 earn less than RD$5,500 a month.
