Tweets uncover scandal in Dominican Republic’s Youth Ministry

Santo Domingo.- Once again the social networks are the key to express the young people’s need for response from officials and have turned into a surprising weapon in the war on government corruption .

Dominican tweeters demand that Youth minister Jorge Minaya explain a trip he made youngsters who won the National Youth Award should’ve made in 2012.

“Minaya.Come.Clean,” says one tweet, while another reads “If the Youth Minister respects himself, he would be declaring about his ministry’s funds by now."

“Wouldn’t RD$19.72 million in awards that aren’t justified pay many development programs for youth?" asks yet another.

“Dominican youth deserve an explanation of what happened, Minaya,” I don’t know Agro but I want to get to know Taiwan, include me …in the next road trip my pal," added a tweeter.

According to a televised report Saturday by investigative journalist Nuria Piera, as part of an agreement between Taiwan and Dominican Republic, the winners would attend an agricultural course on the Asian island.

The trip slated for July 2012, finally occurred from October 11 to 24 that year, but of the 27 people who took part in the expensive course, only four had prior training or had worked in the agro sector.

The report said Minaya’s friends, associates and children of employees were among the beneficiaries.

It added that despite that the age limit to qualify for a Youth Ministry prize is 35, among the travelers were many people between 38 and 51 years of age.

The two- part report also questioned the cost of staging the National Youth Award ceremony, since according to the Ministry’s own invoices, it was around RD$20.0 million.