Leftists warn against RD$400 loan for cronyism-rife agency

Santo Domingo.- The heads of the minority coalition of leftist parties Frente Amplio (FA-wide front) on Monday visited Chamber of Deputies president Abel Martinez, to deliver a document calling to reject a RD$400.0 million loan for the Dominican Municipal League (LMD).

FA leaders Fidel Santana and Virtues Alvarez said the LMD aims to use the yearly loan request to pay the Christmas bonus for municipal workers, to introduce the other proposal.

"But to our surprise, and all of society, disguised in the laudable cause to secure funds to pay the workers, a request for a 400 million peso loan was submitted, intended to fund the League’s new created Special Projects Unit," the FA document says.

Santana said if the loan is approved, it would deal a hard blow not only to Dominican Republic’s push for austerity, but would also be an unconstitutional and illegal action that will continue the administrative disorder which he affirms has disrupted the country’s financial stability.

He noted that while the League is an advisory agency to the country’s municipalities, it has no powers to resolve conflict within those entities.