NewsWhore
04-23-2008, 02:50 PM
Writing in today's El Caribe, electricity expert Luis Arthur comments on the burden of political patronage on the power situation. He mentions that the CDEEE, the body left after the government privatized electricity distribution, could run on 30 employees or less, and certainly does not need the 1,317 people on its payroll. According to Arthur, the CDEEE has a Board with seven members who each receive between RD$150,000 and RD$200,000 plus other benefits. Furthermore, to make matters worse, he comments that the board members are not technically qualified.
"If we add up the employees of the CDEEE and the Empresa de Electrificacion Rural and the PRA with 2,129, the 5,407 of the three distributors, the 810 and 812 of the Hydroelectric and Transmission operations, and we take into account the seven boards and the seven administrators and their support system, plus the capitalized generating companies, the coordinating organization, and the Superintendence with its respective boards, and we compare it to what there was before privatization, a single board, a single administrator and 3,000 employees, we come to the conclusion that 'e pa lante que vamos', and that capitalization has only been a good deal for political party members, for generator and distributor companies that now do what they feel like, without the Superintendence doing its duty".
Arthur comments that service has not improved to justify the increases. On the contrary, he mentions that while the payroll and number of employees and spending is much higher, the deficits have increased, prices are much higher and blackouts are increasing.
To read more of his analysis of the power hypertrophy situation, see www.luis.arthur.net (http://www.luis.arthur.net)
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#7)
"If we add up the employees of the CDEEE and the Empresa de Electrificacion Rural and the PRA with 2,129, the 5,407 of the three distributors, the 810 and 812 of the Hydroelectric and Transmission operations, and we take into account the seven boards and the seven administrators and their support system, plus the capitalized generating companies, the coordinating organization, and the Superintendence with its respective boards, and we compare it to what there was before privatization, a single board, a single administrator and 3,000 employees, we come to the conclusion that 'e pa lante que vamos', and that capitalization has only been a good deal for political party members, for generator and distributor companies that now do what they feel like, without the Superintendence doing its duty".
Arthur comments that service has not improved to justify the increases. On the contrary, he mentions that while the payroll and number of employees and spending is much higher, the deficits have increased, prices are much higher and blackouts are increasing.
To read more of his analysis of the power hypertrophy situation, see www.luis.arthur.net (http://www.luis.arthur.net)
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#7)