2006 – Page 8

The Senate is expected to approve the new fiscal reform today without much ado. The reform, which has been generally rejected since it was announced, is part of the requirements for the IMF Stand-by agreement and needs to be approved as quickly as possible. Tomy Galan, president of the Senate’s finance commission, announced modifications would …

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Presidency Technical Secretary Temistocles Montas says that once Congress passes the fiscal reform it will no longer be a topic of debate or conflict in the country. This is wishful thinking on Montas’s behalf, considering that the reform has managed to unite both the public and private sector against the plan ever since it was …

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Did you know that December has been the preferred month for fiscal reforms? According to Diario Libre, in the last 18 years most fiscal reforms have come at the end of the year and they point out two specific reasons. First being that reforms are passed at the end of one year in order for …

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The government has announced that the PetroCaribe agreement with Venezuela has been renewed for 2007. Through the agreement the Dominican government postpones its payments of its fuel imports. The country is allowed to finance 40% of Venezuelan petroleum purchases, with a two-year grace period and 25 years to pay the bill, at an interest rate …

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Finance Minister Vicente Bengoa has washed his hands off the Pensions Department fraud case saying that he has fulfilled his duties and that the case is now in the hands of the justice system. Bengoa is quoted in Diario Libre as saying at a press conference: “I discovered the fraud, I fired [people], I called …

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The social aid program with the Solidarity card has not only revealed the sheer quantity of poor people in the country, but also the fact that many Dominicans do not have proper documentation. Statistics indicate that 14.3% of adults in the program have no ‘cedula’ identification cards and that 10% of adults and children in …

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A three-month investigation by the National Investigation Department (DNI) has been presented to the judges at the Central Electoral Board, revealing that JCE workers have been involved in issuing thousands of fraudulent birth certificates and ‘cedula’ identification cards. Diario Libre writes that documents were processed for illegal Haitians, baseball players, dancers and fugitives from justice. …

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State prosecutors will appeal the decision of Judge Jose Duverge Mejia who chose to set bail for RD$100,000 for Puerto Rican Jose Antonio David Colon, and Dominicans Federico Castillo Papua, Edickson Javier Maria and Francisco Amaury Simon, requiring only that these come before the adjunct prosecutor Isidro Vasquez Pena on Fridays. The Coordinator of the …

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Telecom equipment that allows for communication between Orange and Verizon phones was affected yesterday, affecting telephone service yesterday. The Dominican Institute of Telecommunications (Indotel) was awaiting an official communication from Verizon yesterday, as reported in Diario Libre.

The Dominican Republic is asking the AES Corporation to clean up the fly ash that was dumped in Samana and Manzanillo, and prefers an out-of-court settlement. But if a deal is not reached ahead of time the government is preparing to take its case to the US federal court. Hoy reports that last week a …

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