 After WikiLeaks scolding, top official says excess vice ministers are out
DominicanToday.com - Public Administration minister Ramon Ventura Camejo, who pushed to raise the then vice ministry to the higher level, announced the start of the elimination of Secretariats and Undersecretaries which are still in effect, as stated in the Constitution approved January 26, 2010.
The announcement also comes one day after a WikiLeaks cable revealed that the U.S. Embassy had criticized Fernandez’s excessive designations of officials as if “a distribution of war booty.”
Ventura said that during a September 15 Cabinet meeting in the National Palace, president Leonel Fernandez instructed him to carry out “all pertinent actions to rationalize the organizational structure of the ministries that conform the Public Administration.”
He called on all the heads of the Ministries to determine the exact number of vice ministers their entities require, after which the Public Administration Ministry will suppress the undersecretaries who are dysfunctional.
In that regard, the official said he’ll meet with the different ministers from September 26 to October 26 to weigh the various proposals, based on international principles and experience to improve the internal structures of the ministries.
Ventura added that Fernandez is committed to continue advancing in the improvement in the Public Administration’s institutionalism.
Industries rail government’s designation of people who get paid but don’t work
The head of industrial companies grouped in the AEIH on Sunday slammed the designation of “bottles” (people who get paid without working) in the regularity entity Proindustria, which in his view violates the law created that agency.
Wadi Cano Acra said while the legislation stipulates a designation of only one assistant director from Proindustria council’s short list submitted to the Executive Branch, more than 20 “bottles” have been named in the post, and the designations continue, but worse still, are people who don’t even show up to work. “We do not understand how, on hand, the Government alleges it lacks funds to abide by the allocation of 4% of the gross domestic product for education and, on the other, wastes resources with unnecessary designations in government agencies.”
The AEIH statement signed by its president said despite the allegation that the designations have little material weight, the signal sent is extremely negative and constitutes a hard blow for those who advocate improving the quality of government spending. He added that while an important part of the world is undergoing a financial crisis, Dominican Republic turns its back on the possibility of boosting internal production.
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