2004 – Page 70

The Reformist Party (PRSC), the smallest of the major political parties in the Dominican Republic, currently employs 148 people in the Chamber of Deputies, a largesse that costs the government RD$1.465 million each month in salaries alone. There are 54 “advisors,” 25 auxiliary personnel, 21 assistants, 17 secretaries, 8 drivers, 6 messengers, 5 “security” staff, …

Read more…

Public Works Minister Freddy Perez says that the budget for the government’s first 100 days of its administration has been redirected to the eastern region of the country that suffered damages from Hurricane Jeanne. Perez said that the eastern provinces lost 13 bridges that were knocked down by swollen rivers, while more than 20 other …

Read more…

The powerful lobby group comprised of the Central Romana and Casa Vicini sugar producing companies has requested that President Leonel Fernandez ask the United States to revise the sugar-related provisions included in the free trade agreement that was signed with the United States, as reported in Hoy newspaper. Because the DR’s agreement has been docked …

Read more…

University professor Federico Cuello denies that he feels the DR would be better off to discontinue the FTA proceedings with the US, as stated in DR1’s summary of his commentary from El Caribe yesterday. “But whether it is justified or not, it is a done deal and all we can do now is to try …

Read more…

In his inaugural speech on 16 August, President Leonel Fernandez promised to begin a period of austerity that would reduce political patronage in government jobs. “We must eliminate the deputy minister positions in government that have not been written into the laws of each ministry,” he avowed. Listin Diario political commentator Orlando Gil writes today …

Read more…

President Leonel Fernandez signed Law 288-04, otherwise known as the tax reform, that is intended to provide the government with a windfall of RD$22 billion in additional revenues. The law will take effect on Thursday, 30 September in Santo Domingo and on Saturday in the provinces, according to the Listin Diario. The provision increases the …

Read more…

Fernando Garcia, of the Ferreteria Americana and the president of ONEC, which represents large department stores in the DR, told Hoy newspaper that the buying power of the population has been reduced by 40%. He said that despite the impact of the tax reform and the augmented ITBIS from 12% to 16% consumer item prices …

Read more…

Engineer Radhames Segura, the administrator of the Corporacion Dominicana de Empresas Electricas Estatales (CDEEE), told Hoy newspaper that he has been instructed by President Leonel Fernandez to renegotiate the Madrid Accord, the agreement that fixed the prices for power purchased from generators. He said he will also be reviewing the buyback of Union Fenosa power …

Read more…

The president of the Supreme Court of Justice, Jorge Subero Isa, said that citizens must study the new penal procedures code to understand it. He said that as per the new law, the police can no longer arrest citizens in raid-like operations, nor can anyone be detained without a relative present. Subero also told Diario …

Read more…

Hoy newspaper’s online edition was updated this afternoon to reveal the names of those National Police generals and colonels who illicitly obtained luxury vehicles that were stolen, recovered, and never returned to their legitimate owners. The most prominent name on the list of offenders is that of retired General Jaime Marte Martinez, the former chief …

Read more…