The Listin Diario reports that the checks are coming in, and that from these loan disbursements the government will pay RD$1.6 billion to the electric generation companies. Hoy newspaper, however, says that the electric companies and the government have not yet reached any agreement. And then El Caribe, commenting on the US$150-million disbursement expected from the Interamerican Development Bank (IDB) says the sum “isn’t enough to solve the blackouts.” According to the government-intervened Listin, Finance Minister Rafael Calderon told reporters that starting today the government will begin making payment to the generators so that they can activate their units. At the same time, the government minister denied that the government owes them a total of US$400 million, as claimed by the generating companies. Calderon spoke to reporters after leaving a four-hour meeting with the Official Commission for Sustaining the Electric Sector and the chief executives of the various entities that supply electricity to the national grid. He said that the government will receive US$120 million from IDB and World Bank programs over the next few months and promised payments of US$40 million a month to the generators. El Caribe reporter Mercedes Gonzalez wrote that not enough fuel could be bought with that sum of money to end the perennial blackouts the country is experiencing, saying that once the new fuel inventories run out, the crisis would surely be back. Gonzalez writes that neither the authorities nor the electricity companies have elucidated any definitive solution to the problem that is rooted in a lack of liquidity and manifested in the blackouts experienced every day by the general population. One representative of the generating companies told Gonzalez that the US$20 million promised by the Finance Minister was “insignificant.” According to sources close to the power producers, said this reporter, the CDEEE owes US$180 million to the Independent Private Power Producers (IPPs in Spanish). A large amount of this money is owed by Ede-Norte and Ed-Sur, entities that are now in government hands. Ede-Este says that the government owes them RD$1 billion in rate subsidies, and, to make matters even thornier, Ede-Este reported that cash flow for the month of January was down between 10% and 15%, due partly to the blackouts. A representative from EGE-Haina, the largest energy producer in the Dominican Republic with its 602 MW capacity, told reporters from Hoy that they need transparency, upfront payment and a steady remittance schedule in order to ignite their generating units. Minister Calderon told the reporters that there was US$40 million available in funds from the IDB. His mathematical solution? “We have US$20 million to cover expenses, plus whatever Ede-Norte and Ede-Sur generate during this month (February) and US$20 million dollars for March.”