Santo Domingo.- "I have to wait for the president to issue a decree, replacing me there in Taiwan, which is the right thing to do, and besides, I am going to tell El Nuevo Diario, I am open to any question that they want to ask me," said Alburquerque,
File. A veteran politico and ally of the ruling party (PLD) gets paid a RD$891,955 monthly since August in the posts of deputy and ambassador, despite being illegal under the Constitution.
Rafaela "Lila" Alburquerque subscribes to the late Joaquin Balaguer, her mentor’s concept, that a little government corruption is allowed as longs as "the crumbs" of malfeasance also reach the masses below.
The El Nuevo Diario’s report uncovering the corruption is in keeping with president Danilo Medina’s justification for failing to take his corrupt officials to justice: "I won’t throw bricks" at the past.
The discovery stems from a complaint by an Instagram reader who noted that she’s a deputy who gets paid of 200,455 pesos in the Lower Chamber and 691,500 pesos as Dominican envoy in Taiwan.
"No official or employee of the State can simultaneously perform more than one remunerated position, except for teaching," Dominican Law stipulates .
Alburquerque’s double salary was found in the websites of the Foreign Ministry’s transparency section (http://transparencia.mirex.gob.do/recursos-humanos/nomina/listados) and of the Lower Chamber.
"There are unconfirmed reports that the congresswoman would have put her position as deputy at the disposal of President Danilo Medina, however, Alburquerque was photographed this Tuesday by journalists from El Nuevo Diario, while participating in the session of the day in the Chamber of Deputies," the outlet reports.