NewsWhore
12-17-2009, 01:00 PM
In today's El Caribe lawyer Marisol Vicens Bello writes that the Dominican Republic has become a pirate state. She criticizes the fact that government officials impose their vision, "and worse still, often their own projects." Vicens criticizes the way that many government officials only promote projects in which they are "partners." She says this probably occurs because each President believes that government posts are gifts to be distributed among allies, family or friends, without the skills or qualifications for the job, and that this has obviously caused serious damage to our country.
"In what appears to be a cynical game or a disregard for institutions and the nation, the important thing is to fill the posts to keep the party members or allies contented and under control. This practice has become generalized and is repeated at all levels so that each government official then creates his own fiefdom to benefit his own, at a high cost in inefficiency and corruption. That is why the promoters of projects, loans and deals that mutate from government to government, and preposterous affairs just keep recurring."
Vicens says that this has distorted public service, turning it into an individual wealth creation tool, as opposing to serving the common good. She says that it now serves purposes contrary to those for which the department was established. She says that is why there are so many police and military officers who are criminals, inspectors and supervisors who are complicit in acts that they should be controlling, and government officials who are more enemies of the objectives they should be facilitating.
"No country can progress in these conditions, even if billions are spent on propaganda that states the contrary. The President needs to fire and prosecute the officials who do not fulfill their role because his commitment is to the people who elected him and not with those who "worked hard in the campaign." If this does not happen he will be affected by the negative consequences," she writes.
She concludes: "If we allow every government official to believe that he has a free hand to do whatever he likes in his department, above the law and national interests or to use the posts for spurious purposes without consequences from the authority that appoints them, then we will end up being a pirate state, uncontrollable even by the authorities themselves."
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#8)
"In what appears to be a cynical game or a disregard for institutions and the nation, the important thing is to fill the posts to keep the party members or allies contented and under control. This practice has become generalized and is repeated at all levels so that each government official then creates his own fiefdom to benefit his own, at a high cost in inefficiency and corruption. That is why the promoters of projects, loans and deals that mutate from government to government, and preposterous affairs just keep recurring."
Vicens says that this has distorted public service, turning it into an individual wealth creation tool, as opposing to serving the common good. She says that it now serves purposes contrary to those for which the department was established. She says that is why there are so many police and military officers who are criminals, inspectors and supervisors who are complicit in acts that they should be controlling, and government officials who are more enemies of the objectives they should be facilitating.
"No country can progress in these conditions, even if billions are spent on propaganda that states the contrary. The President needs to fire and prosecute the officials who do not fulfill their role because his commitment is to the people who elected him and not with those who "worked hard in the campaign." If this does not happen he will be affected by the negative consequences," she writes.
She concludes: "If we allow every government official to believe that he has a free hand to do whatever he likes in his department, above the law and national interests or to use the posts for spurious purposes without consequences from the authority that appoints them, then we will end up being a pirate state, uncontrollable even by the authorities themselves."
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#8)