NewsWhore
09-27-2010, 02:30 PM
Writing in his op-ed piece in Saturday's Hoy newspaper, news commentator Juan Bolivar Diaz cited government corruption as the main reason the DR is likely to fail to achieve the Millennium Development Goals by 2015. Speaking at the United Nations in New York last week, President Leonel Fernandez blamed the 2003 local banking crisis, the tropical storms of 2007 and 2008 and the international financial crisis for the DR's poor showing. Fernandez has been President since 2004 and has had majority in Congress.
Diaz acknowledges that while these were problems, they cannot justify the country's poor performance because of the amount of resources the government has handled and the 7% average annual growth rate.
Diaz mentions the three tax reforms that he says disproportionately generated billions in revenues for the government. In addition, the government enjoyed a windfall of additional resources as the public foreign debt more than doubled in the past decade. He says this explains how the National Budget increased by 150% during President Fernandez's 2004-08 administration. He said the damage caused by the tropical storms in 2007 was not on a scale to merit even a mention by the President in his address at the UN and in no way justifies the poor showing. He said that to blame the international financial crisis contradicts speeches by President Fernandez himself in 2008 and 2009, when he stressed on several occasions that the national economy was shielded.
"Every year the Dominican government claims almost miraculous economic growth, and now the President admits the country has not been able to meet commitments to improve indicators in education, health, housing, environment and gender", he writes.
"The truth is that it is a matter of priorities, of quality of public spending, of great proportion of misappropriation of public funds," he continues.
He stressed that the government has had more than enough funds to turn the provinces of El Seibo and Monte Plata into models for meeting the Millennium Goals.
He concurs with Roby Senderowitsch, the World Bank representative in the DR, who said recently that the government needs to improve the quality of spending and make investments with better yield, increase transparency and reduce levels of corruption. Senderowitsch pointed out that the country shows the same levels of poverty as 20 years ago, despite posting more GDP growth than any other country in Latin America.
"We have not been able to meet the Millennium Goals because we have the highest levels of misappropriation of public funds in the world. We occupy position 138 among 139 countries evaluated in the Global Competitiveness Report of the World Economic Forum 2010-2011," writes Diaz.
He comments that the DR has had the funds but has spent them on construction projects and remodeling government buildings, and given priority to road overpasses and even a Metro that cost around US$1 billion, but benefits barely 25,000 people a day. "Tremendous irrationality," he writes.
http://www.hoy.com.do/opiniones/2010/9/25/343468/Es-la-calidad-del-gasto-publico
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#4)
Diaz acknowledges that while these were problems, they cannot justify the country's poor performance because of the amount of resources the government has handled and the 7% average annual growth rate.
Diaz mentions the three tax reforms that he says disproportionately generated billions in revenues for the government. In addition, the government enjoyed a windfall of additional resources as the public foreign debt more than doubled in the past decade. He says this explains how the National Budget increased by 150% during President Fernandez's 2004-08 administration. He said the damage caused by the tropical storms in 2007 was not on a scale to merit even a mention by the President in his address at the UN and in no way justifies the poor showing. He said that to blame the international financial crisis contradicts speeches by President Fernandez himself in 2008 and 2009, when he stressed on several occasions that the national economy was shielded.
"Every year the Dominican government claims almost miraculous economic growth, and now the President admits the country has not been able to meet commitments to improve indicators in education, health, housing, environment and gender", he writes.
"The truth is that it is a matter of priorities, of quality of public spending, of great proportion of misappropriation of public funds," he continues.
He stressed that the government has had more than enough funds to turn the provinces of El Seibo and Monte Plata into models for meeting the Millennium Goals.
He concurs with Roby Senderowitsch, the World Bank representative in the DR, who said recently that the government needs to improve the quality of spending and make investments with better yield, increase transparency and reduce levels of corruption. Senderowitsch pointed out that the country shows the same levels of poverty as 20 years ago, despite posting more GDP growth than any other country in Latin America.
"We have not been able to meet the Millennium Goals because we have the highest levels of misappropriation of public funds in the world. We occupy position 138 among 139 countries evaluated in the Global Competitiveness Report of the World Economic Forum 2010-2011," writes Diaz.
He comments that the DR has had the funds but has spent them on construction projects and remodeling government buildings, and given priority to road overpasses and even a Metro that cost around US$1 billion, but benefits barely 25,000 people a day. "Tremendous irrationality," he writes.
http://www.hoy.com.do/opiniones/2010/9/25/343468/Es-la-calidad-del-gasto-publico
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#4)