NewsWhore
01-14-2008, 03:50 PM
As soon as the Chamber of Deputies passed the 2008 budget bill, cries of 'foul' started to circulate along the halls of Congress. After the initial exchange of insults between Chamber of Deputies president Julio Cesar Valentin and Senate president Reinaldo Pared Perez (both members of the ruling PLD party), PPC deputy Radhames Castro continued to stoke the fires of controversy with his revelations that members of the legislature either front or have strong ties to many NGOs. Part of the issue revolves around the fact that the legislators also handle special funds, called, 'little barrels' in the Dominican press and "pork barrels" in the United States. Castro's complaint that many legislators use 'fronts' to shield their roles in the NGOs is backed up by Diario Libre investigators who found that at least two senators, two deputies and several other government officials have close ties with these organizations. For example, Monte Plata Senator Charlie Mariotti spent half an hour telling the Senate that he did not have an NGO, yet the research showed that he is registered as the representative of Alimenta 2000 and Juventud 2000 that were assigned RD$480,000 according to the National Planning and Personnel Office (ONAPLAN). Senator Diego Aquino is the principal officer of the Centro de Desarrollo Integral, with a stipend of RD$300,000. The list continues. Deputy Castro told reporters that Pared Perez has ties to an NGO called Lideres Anonimos which is headed by Giselio Taveras, who just happened to be part of the Pared Perez' campaign team. Castro demanded that Pared Perez withdraw his comments or else he (Castro) would come out with even more serious issues. "He knows that I know", said Castro.
Servio Tulio Castanos Guzman, the vice-president of the Institutionalism and Justice Foundation (FINJUS) has called for an end to the "phantom" NGOs, and decried the fact that the country lacks the mechanisms needed to end the practice.
Today's Diario Libre says that at least eight of the NGOs that were assigned funding are not even registered with Onaplan. They have been assigned a total of RD$13.4 million in the new budget.
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#4)
Servio Tulio Castanos Guzman, the vice-president of the Institutionalism and Justice Foundation (FINJUS) has called for an end to the "phantom" NGOs, and decried the fact that the country lacks the mechanisms needed to end the practice.
Today's Diario Libre says that at least eight of the NGOs that were assigned funding are not even registered with Onaplan. They have been assigned a total of RD$13.4 million in the new budget.
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#4)