Writing in Saturday's Hoy newspaper, journalist Juan Bolivar Diaz focused on what has been said many times before. The Dominican foreign service is bloated with political appointees. Diaz says that the situation in the foreign service shows why the Dominican Republic tops the list of 142 countries on the World Economic Forum Global Competitiveness Index for wasteful spending. He says that 1,163 people have been appointed to 54 countries, including 660 diplomats and 503 consuls, equal to all those appointed by all the Central American countries combined. In addition, the Ministry of Foreign Relations has 113 ambassadors without posts. This year it has a budget of RD$4.937 billion. He said the country spends RD$4 billion a year on wages and the DR has about the same number of appointees to the United Nations and the Organization of American States as the United States. In per capita terms, the DR leads in foreign service appointees.

Diaz makes the point that in the United States alone there are 384 officials on the payroll, which is more than all those appointed in the six Central American countries and in Brazil. He makes the point that many of the people on the payroll do not even reside in these countries, and have not been accredited by the country. He points out that this is the case in the United States, where many of the appointees are residents or citizens of the country. He says that many of them only visit the mission where they are assigned sporadically, and in many cases the head of mission has asked them not to bother because there is no physical space for them. He mentions it is common for ambassadors to serve as consuls in the same country.

Foreign delegations in the Dominican Republic total 442, for a 5:1 ratio.

The Hoy article mentions that Colombia is one country that has refused to accredit more foreign service representatives from the DR. So far, the government has appointed 30 to Colombia, while Colombia has sent five representatives to their mission here.

Caribbean islands have large Dominican delegations. He mentions Jamaica with 14, compared to one Jamaican official in the DR, and Trinidad with nine and one official in the DR, who is an honorary consul. In the cases of Aruba (10), Curacao (9), Antigua-Barbuda (6) and St. Maarten (6) he comments that most of those appointed are vice consuls who charge up to US$200 to legalize documents to migrant Dominicans.

In the case of Argentina, 15 have been appointed by the Dominican Republic, compared to three appointed by Argentina in the Dominican Republic (an ambassador, a consular charge d'affaires and a manager). In contrast, the Dominican embassy in Buenos Aires consists of an ambassador, four ministers counselor, four counselors, four first secretaries, a cultural attache and an assistant attache.

In New York City, there are 160 appointees, including 63 to the United Nations and 97 to the Dominican Consulate. He estimates that only half have been accredited.

www.hoy.com.do/tema-de-hoy/2012/1/21/411137/Crece-y-crece-nomina-del-servicio-exterior

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