Yesterday, the Diario Libre newspaper?s headlines told of the ?disappearance? of RD$28 million that was supposed to be used in other projects for the Chamber of Accounts, the governmental accounts auditing office. The report filed by Senator Tonty Rutinel Dominguez and given to the President showed that the money went to salary increases, per diems and off-budget expenses when it should have gone to improvements for a more professional auditing department.
Despite the revelations, the Senate ratified the personnel of the accounting office last 25 May. Today?s papers report that two of the judges at the accounting office have resigned their posts, in disagreement with the ratification and the denounced corruption. They asked that an audit be carried out to pinpoint the corruption.
The Diario Libre piece, written by Raimundo Diaz, showed in graphic form how salaries and travel expenses had increased dramatically over the past year in that department. The missing monies were designated for use in programs that were part of an Inter American Development Bank (IDB) project to modernize both the Congress and the Accounting Office. Part of the funds were meant for the hiring of 50 newly-graduated accounting students from the UASD. None were hired. According to Rutinel, ?Only bureaucratic personnel and family members were hired, people with no technical qualifications for the jobs.?
Yesterday, judges Raul Reyes Vasquez and Mayra Cochon Trujillo tendered their resignations to Senate president Jesus Vasquez, saying that the Chamber of Accounts had been in clear violation of the reform and modernization programs undertaken with IDB funding. Both judges said that they had been excluded from any decisions taken by the Chamber of Accounts.
While the Senate will now study the possibility of auditing the Chamber of Accounts, Marisol Vicens, the former president of ANJE, writes that this situation is a ?hard knock? on the reform process. She points out that a few months ago Law 10-04 was approved to reform the Chamber of Accounts. Supposedly, within 15 days of its passage, however, the Senate would reconfirm or designate new members of the accounting office. At this juncture, the president of the Commission on Institutional Reform and Modernization of the National Congress and the Chamber of Accounts, Tonty Rutinel, gave President Mejia a list of possible candidates for jobs in the accounting department, and additionally reporting a series of alleged ethical violations, with examples cited, and offering his help in detecting even more problems. In support of his allegations, the senator pointed to the decision of the coordinator for technical affairs of the project, Mario Andrade Trujillo, to withdraw his services. Andrade specified several incidents he considered to be irregular. Vicens goes on to say that the current situation is setback for the modernization process and cause for a loss of faith in public institutions.