NewsWhore
09-04-2008, 05:00 PM
Manuel Diez Cabral, president of the Association of Industries of the Dominican Republic, said that the agreement for US$460 million in financing by the government to the power distribution companies is just a way of prolonging the critical situation, not resolving it. "Not only does it increase the foreign debt, but it uses treasury funds that should be allocated to other priorities, and it leaves out consumers who will have to continue paying for an expensive and unreliable service," he said. He added that the worst of all is that the government intends to grant conditions similar to the Madrid Accord where the contracts could last 20 years. The government agreed to fund power distributors with US$460 million through the next four years and purchase electricity barges to assuage the deficit in power generation.
Ernesto Vilalta, electricity coordinator for the Association of Herrera, summed up the frustration of manufacturers: "The electricity problem was going to be resolved in 1996, later in 2000, then in 2004 and now in 2012, but these continue to just be announcements," he said. He said the problem is that politics calls the shots in the electricity sector.
Politics has lead to hidden profits in the contracts, as well as the sector being used as a job agency for persons with influence in the government, and with those who pay electricity bills paying for these extra costs. Fausto Rosario of Clave newspaper says that back in 1996 when the sector would be privatized the CDE had 6,000 employees. Today, the institutions that replaced it have 8,096 employees, not including those of EdeEste, the large power distributor that covers the southeastern and eastern third of the country.
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#7)
Ernesto Vilalta, electricity coordinator for the Association of Herrera, summed up the frustration of manufacturers: "The electricity problem was going to be resolved in 1996, later in 2000, then in 2004 and now in 2012, but these continue to just be announcements," he said. He said the problem is that politics calls the shots in the electricity sector.
Politics has lead to hidden profits in the contracts, as well as the sector being used as a job agency for persons with influence in the government, and with those who pay electricity bills paying for these extra costs. Fausto Rosario of Clave newspaper says that back in 1996 when the sector would be privatized the CDE had 6,000 employees. Today, the institutions that replaced it have 8,096 employees, not including those of EdeEste, the large power distributor that covers the southeastern and eastern third of the country.
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#7)