NewsWhore
09-03-2009, 01:40 PM
Ines Aizpun, editor at Diario Libre, comments today on the reported "ignorance" of government officers on matters of corruption in their departments. "It is very difficult to believe that the president of the Senate did not know that a good number of senators had many family members on their payrolls, " she writes.
She also makes the point that it is hard to believe that the president of the Senate was not aware either that Williams lived in the US [the Senator from San Pedro de Macoris who rarely attends sessions] or that deputy Radhames Fermin has not attended a session in two years.
"It is not ignorance; it is class solidarity," she writes.
She says it is essential to dismount clientelism, and that this can only happen with political will. "Only the political parties themselves can dismount clientelism, because they are who legislate and allow this pseudo-charity that they use to win elections, while all, poor or not poor, see this happening at the expense of the development of the country," she writes.
In a back page editorial, the same newspaper also calls for the elimination of the so-called "barrilito", the extra fund legislators have ruled for themselves, in addition to their wages and already padded perks. "The problem is not the nepotism that originates with the barrilito, it is the barrilito itself," writes the editorialist. "He concludes: "Will the naming instead of non- family members resolve this spendthrift mechanism of public funds?"
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#3)
She also makes the point that it is hard to believe that the president of the Senate was not aware either that Williams lived in the US [the Senator from San Pedro de Macoris who rarely attends sessions] or that deputy Radhames Fermin has not attended a session in two years.
"It is not ignorance; it is class solidarity," she writes.
She says it is essential to dismount clientelism, and that this can only happen with political will. "Only the political parties themselves can dismount clientelism, because they are who legislate and allow this pseudo-charity that they use to win elections, while all, poor or not poor, see this happening at the expense of the development of the country," she writes.
In a back page editorial, the same newspaper also calls for the elimination of the so-called "barrilito", the extra fund legislators have ruled for themselves, in addition to their wages and already padded perks. "The problem is not the nepotism that originates with the barrilito, it is the barrilito itself," writes the editorialist. "He concludes: "Will the naming instead of non- family members resolve this spendthrift mechanism of public funds?"
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#3)