NewsWhore
02-15-2007, 02:21 PM
After the Chamber of Accounts declared itself incompetent to rule on the JCE incentives case, Central Electoral Board head, Julio Cesar Castanos Guzman announced the JCE's own board would decide on the issue next Wednesday. A majority vote would be called. The Chamber cited article 10 of Law 10-04 and article 8 of Law 821-27, and its 1941 modification that would relieve the judges from an opinion in the dispute. Judge Aura Celeste Fernandez disputes the RD$66,000 a month incentive payments, which are equal to the income tax deductions that judges would be required to pay, and has refused to accept them herself. Of her colleagues on the JCE, only judge Mariano Rodriguez followed suit.
News reports also carry comments from three previous JCE judges on the incentives case. The judges and the widow of a former JCE president have asked the current JCE to look into the records to see if at any time they received funds or benefits outside of their monthly checks. Juan Sully Bonelly, Luis Mora Guzman, Rafael Armando Vallejo and Ivelisse Saldana de Estrella (widow of Cesar Estrella Sadhala) made their comments in light of the announcement by the Chamber of Accounts who said they are not in a position to decide on the legality of receiving these incentives. In a statement, the former judges said that if those judges received or did not receive extra benefits, this should be made public in either case.
Also commenting on the issue, Diario Libre's Adriano Miguel Tejada writes today that "independently of their legality, the matter irritates the public that each day feels crushed by a leviathan-state, while politicians and high-ranking officers seem to live in a Nirvana full of privileges."
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#9)
News reports also carry comments from three previous JCE judges on the incentives case. The judges and the widow of a former JCE president have asked the current JCE to look into the records to see if at any time they received funds or benefits outside of their monthly checks. Juan Sully Bonelly, Luis Mora Guzman, Rafael Armando Vallejo and Ivelisse Saldana de Estrella (widow of Cesar Estrella Sadhala) made their comments in light of the announcement by the Chamber of Accounts who said they are not in a position to decide on the legality of receiving these incentives. In a statement, the former judges said that if those judges received or did not receive extra benefits, this should be made public in either case.
Also commenting on the issue, Diario Libre's Adriano Miguel Tejada writes today that "independently of their legality, the matter irritates the public that each day feels crushed by a leviathan-state, while politicians and high-ranking officers seem to live in a Nirvana full of privileges."
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#9)