Prominent group vows crusade against scandalous pensions

SANTO DOMINGO- Justice and Transparency Foundation (FJT) president Trajan Potentini on Sunday announced a civic crusade against severance payments and pensions benefiting the past Administration’s financial sector officials during the transition period, based on internal regulations, in his view "unlawful, unconstitutional and outside the social security and public service laws."

He said the past officials’ actions are a clear and open violation of the constitutional principles of fairness, proportionality and equality.

He urged the Government’s relevant ministries -Finance and Public Administration- to review, investigate and suspend irregular, disproportionate and questioned pension payments, and to clean up the payroll, to verify those which in addition to a pension, today also continue to receive a salary with a post in government.

"It’s unsustainable and shameful that there are officials under 55 earning more than half a million pesos a month in a poor country like Dominican Republic, not only for life, but for eternity,” Potentini said.

"It’s even transferable to the family, in a clear contrast and unfair gap with the vast majority of the Dominican people, with miserly pensions that barely reach 5,000 pesos, becoming an aberrant and recurrent practice in the country, which must be removed," he said.