2004 – Page 66

While efforts continue to restore a vehicular bridge over the Chavon River in order to provide a land link for La Romana and La Altagracia province, a barge is offering an alternative service. The Listin Diario reported that the ferry is charging RD$500 per car or pick-up truck. The ferry is not transporting cargo trucks. …

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The Dominican peso, which abruptly shot to a record two-year high of RD$27 to US$1 last week, lost out to the US currency and yesterday was being traded at RD$35.50 and RD$37 to US$1. Exchange banks said there was a scarcity of dollars. Meanwhile, Finance Minister Vicente Bengoa, as reported in Diario Libre, said that …

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A study conducted by the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) and the Faculty for Social Sciences (Flacso) reveals that around 6,000 minors a year are trafficked to the DR in complicity with Dominican and Haitian military members. The organizations say that most of the youths are brought by a relative, but many are victims of …

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The former chief of the National Police, retired Major General Jaime Marte Martinez, classified the report that he was assigned 15 of the stolen vehicles recovered by the police as being false and full of lies. He said the story contains inconsistencies and irregularities and was the result of an investigational committee that never questioned …

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The former treasurer of Baninter (today Scotiabank), Manuel Guaroa Liranzo, is scheduled to appear next Friday in a court hearing to sustain a lawsuit he filed against the former president of the bank, Ramon Baez Figueroa. The Listin Diario reports that Liranzo was excluded from the allegations of fraud the Mejia government levied against Baninter. …

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Twenty-two Dominican players are participating in the Major League Baseball playoffs. The teams this year are the St. Louis Cardinals vs the Los Angels Dodgers; the Altanta Bravos vs the Houson Astros; New York Yankees vs Minnesota Twins; and Boston Red Sox vs Anaheim Angels. The players are Jose Offerman, Albert Pujols, Alex Rodriguez, Jose …

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The Fernandez administration has been requiring that all public employees be paid in person in order to detect government payroll irregularities. The Ministry of Education, for one, has said that they have found hundreds of such discrepancies already, among which are the names of 271 watchmen, gardeners, janitors, and office clerks who had been promoted …

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Max Puig, the new minister of environment, says that he will delegate less responsibility to his deputy ministers than his predecessor, Frank Moya Pons. Puig told El Caribe in an interview published in its Sunday edition that he would also review the environmental licenses granted by former Deputy Minister Rene Ledesma, who was in charge …

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A technical mission from the International Monetary Fund headed by Steven Phillips met last week with the government’s economic team to review advances made in economic policy. The object of the IMF is to assess whether the stand by agreement may be resumed now that the tax reform has been passed. Technical Secretary of the …

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Employees who were earning RD$20,000 in January will be returned income taxes paid to the government on their wages. The Department of Taxation (DGII) reported that, for instance, an employee making RD$20,000 could obtain RD$4,784.67 in cash. The newly approved tax reform establishes that all wages up to RD$20,000 are exempt from income taxation. El …

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