NewsWhore
10-20-2011, 03:30 PM
Despite the fact that the General Budget of the State for 2012 literally "flew" through the first and second round of voting in the Chamber of Deputies this week, some stubborn groups of citizens and jurists are insisting that it should be changed. Some groups launched acidic commentaries about the alacrity with which the proposal was sped through the voting process, while others made accusations that the legislation, as passed, is in itself illegal because it needed a special majority to be passed.
The PLD deputies defended the passage and denied the need for a special, two-thirds majority for approval.
On Wednesday the Coalition for Dignified Education, the standard bearers for the 4% for Education campaign, held a vigil outside of the National Congress, and the Federation of Dominican Municipalities (Fedomu) said that they were going to file a lawsuit alleging that the bill violates the Constitution. The National Business Council (Conep) reiterated its position that the budget as it now stands is changing several Fundamental Laws in such a substantial manner that it absolutely requires a two-thirds vote in order to be legal. Conep points out that the Executive Branch is granted too broad a capacity "of administrative distribution by way of presidential decrees" when this distribution should be "transparent and set by law."
The Young Entrepreneurs Association (ANJE) pointed out that the budget violates Article 35 of its own fundamental law, which says that each ministry's budget assignment must be clearly stated. ANJE president Lara Guerrero was particularly critical, pointing out that "it is highly questionable how the budget conceives of the Executive Branch as an institution that covers all of the Ministries, because this is a contradiction of Article 234 of the Constitution, which prohibits transfers of budget resources from one ministry to another without the passage of a law."
However, an item in El Caribe says that a legal report prepared for Conep says that there is a way for the President to get around the stipulations of that article. According to the report, Article 11 of the Budget Law says that while the budget items are not individually shown, it indicates rather the limits of expenditures by ministry and delegates to the Executive Branch the authority to establish by decree all of the appropriations that should be assigned in the law.
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#2)
The PLD deputies defended the passage and denied the need for a special, two-thirds majority for approval.
On Wednesday the Coalition for Dignified Education, the standard bearers for the 4% for Education campaign, held a vigil outside of the National Congress, and the Federation of Dominican Municipalities (Fedomu) said that they were going to file a lawsuit alleging that the bill violates the Constitution. The National Business Council (Conep) reiterated its position that the budget as it now stands is changing several Fundamental Laws in such a substantial manner that it absolutely requires a two-thirds vote in order to be legal. Conep points out that the Executive Branch is granted too broad a capacity "of administrative distribution by way of presidential decrees" when this distribution should be "transparent and set by law."
The Young Entrepreneurs Association (ANJE) pointed out that the budget violates Article 35 of its own fundamental law, which says that each ministry's budget assignment must be clearly stated. ANJE president Lara Guerrero was particularly critical, pointing out that "it is highly questionable how the budget conceives of the Executive Branch as an institution that covers all of the Ministries, because this is a contradiction of Article 234 of the Constitution, which prohibits transfers of budget resources from one ministry to another without the passage of a law."
However, an item in El Caribe says that a legal report prepared for Conep says that there is a way for the President to get around the stipulations of that article. According to the report, Article 11 of the Budget Law says that while the budget items are not individually shown, it indicates rather the limits of expenditures by ministry and delegates to the Executive Branch the authority to establish by decree all of the appropriations that should be assigned in the law.
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#2)