2004 – Page 110

President Hipolito Mejia continued his frantic string of inaugurations, yesterday, at the public housing project at San Luis in the province of Santo Domingo. There, the President heard the complaints from the project?s new residents that the houses were incomplete as they lacked windows, doors and bathroom fixtures. El Caribe reporter Roberto Valenzuela wrote that …

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President Mejia submitted another 143 sale contracts of state-owned lands, while the Senate hurriedly approved 34 deals to do with public property and 37 more pensions. The properties referred to are mainly apartments in government-sponsored projects and land-title sales. Mejia sent Senate head Jesus Vasquez 11 official requests that contained the outlines for the 143 …

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Vice-President Milagros Ortiz Bosch said that she did not like the fast-tracked deal that put the coordinator for State Projects, Hernani Salazar, into the Senate to replace an ailing Senator Julio Machado. Ortiz Bosch was rather abrupt when she commented on the designation of the PPH leader to the Senate seat, saying simply, ?I didn?t …

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For the past three years the government has turned to external and internal financing to cover its needs, a habit that has raised the public debt considerably. As the outgoing administration starts to close its books, it is finding itself in very serious and far-reaching problems of liquidity, and there are few places it can …

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The OMSA bus service is paralyzed for lack of funds to pay suppliers and the fuel bills, causing 700 of its buses to sit idle. Hoy reports that one source said that Diogenes Castillo, the head of Metropolitan Office of Bus Service (OMSA), was able to obtain a small quantity of fuel, but the source …

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Apparently, there are serious differences between the petroleum companies and the fuel transport companies, and this conflict is generating at least part of the current scarcity being felt across the country. According to El Caribe, the fuel distributors Shell, Texaco, Isla and Esso and the Association of Petroleum Transporters have faced off with regards to …

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In his column today, the Listin Diario?s political commentator Orlando Gil looks into how President-elect Leonel Fernandez shuffled his people around, assigning them to posts in his incoming economic team ? posts that in many cases were not those to which they aspired. ?President-elect Leonel Fernandez did not surprise anyone with the players, but he …

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Doctor Bernardo Defillo, Doctor Rafael Gonzalez de Pena and former senator Ivan Rondon announced the collapse of the national system of Public Health. Doctor Defillo told reporters from Hoy, ?I am pointing out, without fear, but with much professional embarrassment, that the public health system, its hospitals and its structures has collapsed.? The announcement comes …

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Hoy?s ?Que se dice? column today comments on the highway being built towards the south of the Dominican Republic. The new roadway will ostensibly provide safe and rapid service to the area of Bani and points south. Under discussion is whether the route should go through the north of the city of Bani or to …

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Armed Forces Minister Lieutenant General Jose Miguel Soto Jimenez sent a memorandum to the Director of Immigration telling him that members of the Tarea Quisqueya force that served in Iraq will not be allowed to travel without special official permission. All immigration offices at the airports and ports of the Dominican Republic have received copies …

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