No institutions to deal with government corruption, civic group

SANTO DOMINGO.- The executive director of the civic movement Citizen Participation (PC) on Sunday affirmed that Dominican Republic is the only country which doesn’t have functional institutions to deal with government corruption despite having laws on the books, and accused the “prevailing political regimes” of halting their compliance.

Javier Cabreja said though he acknowledges there’s corruption in all countries, regrets that this is the only one with impunity, stemming from the Dominican judicial system, including Justice Ministry and judges, which in his view have been too benign against those who steal taxpayers’ money.

He said PC detected 234 cases of corruption which had been publicly denounced, of which only six went to court, but only one with a conviction.

Cabreja called the Justice Ministry’s Anticorruption Department “inoperative” to deal with the many cases denounced by different social organizations and media without being processed, which in his view unleashes frustration among Dominican society.