The Government seeks to keep ballooned payrolls

Santo Domingo.- Although the Government must comply with the Constitution which limits the number of vice ministers in each ministry to six, the Public Administration Ministry (MAP) announced that the mandate would be wavered, “in those cases in which the need for a higher number is determined.”

The announcement comes one week after Dominican Teachers Association ex president Maria Teresa Cabrera denounced that the Education Ministry has 23 vice ministers, when the Education Law stipulates only three.

In a resolution, the entity specifies that if those agencies’ statutory laws don’t stipulate the number vice ministries, an analysis of that entity will determine them. “The number of vice ministries in no case will be higher than established by the statutory laws or in the creation of the ministries, except in those in which the need of a higher number is determined.”

The resolution states that the number of vice ministries will be definitively established after the Public Administration General Organization Law and the Law of Ministries, once the studies are conducted.

It said Public Function Law 41-08 instructs the Public Administration Ministry to carry out all pertinent actions to strengthen the institutions and rationalization of the organizational structure of the ministries which conform the State. “To this end, it authorizes the MAP to approve the structure of positions in public administration and evaluate and propose structural, organizational and functional reforms for the government agencies.”

The Labor and Foreign Relations ministries also have ballooned payrolls.