The National Treasury announced yesterday that it had delivered the monthly check RD$70 million to the Dominican Municipal League (LMD) on Monday, the same day LMD officials were complaining to the press that municipalities could not pay their workers for November because the national government was late delivering its funds transfer to LMD. Law 17/97 requires the National Treasury to remit funds equal to 4% of the national budget on the 10th of every month to municipal governments; these funds, which usually actually arrive in municipal government hands on the 20th of each month, are used to pay salaries. LMD Secretary Julio Mariñez (PRD) accused the Fernández Government of deliberately delaying funds to the LMD, just as it has done recently with the Central Election Board (JCE) appointed by a PRD-controlled Congress. He suggested that the PLD-run administration wants to use possible fund delays to pressure more League members into voting for the PLD-PRSC candidate for LMD Secretary, Senator Amable Aristy Castro (PRSC-Altagracia). LMD elections are slated for January 26, with Aristy Castro and Mariñez considered the frontrunners, especially after seven other aspirants to the job announced yesterday that they were retiring from the race in favor of Mariñez. Asked about Mariñez’s charges during his interview on Channel 10’s show "Hola," the Secretary of the Presidency Danilo Medina rejected the charge as a PRD fantasy.
