2008 – Page 279

The Tourist Terminal at Sans Souci, on the eastern side of the Ozama River, is nearing completion. The first stage of the cruise ship facility includes a rebuilt wharf and tourist reception area and various other nautical features that cost an estimated US$50,000,000 according to Diario Libre. The work progress report on the new San …

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Super Mercados Nacional is advertising 40% off on all sorts of peppers, and 20% off all vegetables and fruits. Bravo supermarket has 2 x 1 on lettuce, green bananas for RD$6.45lb, Pollock filets for RD$104.95/12 oz bag, Norwegian codfish for RD$67.95lb, Red Globe grapes for RD$69.95. Super Pola is advertising 35% off fruits and vegetables. …

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The deficit on the balance of payments on the nation’s current accounts has increased to RD$2.23 billion in 2007, up from RD$1.26 billion in 2006. According to statistics published in Hoy, the balance of payments on the current accounts equaled 5.4% of the GDP in 2007, compared to 3.5% of the GDP. According to the …

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Despite the fact that social programs are supposedly set up to help poor people, these programs have become escape valves that encourage clientelism and corruption, reports Diario Libre today. Judicial benevolence, re-election and presidential campaigns add another layer to the ease with which taxpayer funds are irregularly allocated, according to the newspaper. Political sociologist Cesar …

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The government is denying that it is using state funds of between RD$3,000 and RD$4,000 per month to pay thousands of unemployed PLD party members, as TV journalist Nuria Piera recently revealed. She shows numerous women standing in line to collect the checks but not being aware of where they supposedly “worked” in government. According …

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Writing in today’s Diario Libre, Ines Aizpun complains that there seems to be no institutional control over corruption in the DR. She comments that the Nuria Piera TV report shows that there is “systemic corruption, that is part of institutions and perfectly organized and difficult to check.” She says that while the money that is …

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PRD Secretary General, Orlando Jorge Mera, is asking the Central Electoral Board (JCE) to clarify why 200 Dominicans who live in Paris have been registered to vote in Barcelona. Jorge Mera is questioning whether these voters were registered through the appropriate methodology and is asking to have them removed from voter registries, if that is …

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Economist Enrique Iglesias, the former head of the Inter-American Development Bank, has been released from the hospital and Hoy reports that he was planning to leave for Madrid immediately. He said he would go to his office first and then head towards the Uruguayan Embassy in the DR, where he is a naturalized citizen, before …

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The donation of a new hospital to the Santo Domingo North sector of Los Guaricanos could be lost if by 17 March at the latest, the government doesn’t provide the 20,000 square meters needed for the project. The hospital will cost an estimated RD$400 million and is being funded by the Yale University Hospital, in …

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Qatari Ambassador Mubarak Ibrahim Al Sabed has presented Dominican Foreign Relations Minister Carlos Morales Troncoso with a donation of RD$2 million on behalf of his government for the victims of TS Noel and Olga. After receiving the donation, Troncoso announced that Qatar could donate up to US$300 million in development projects, specifically in the energy …

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