Report cites alleged corruption in the Youth Ministry

Santo Domingo.- The Youth Ministry has a ballooned payroll and has paid for study tours where 95% of the beneficiaries are its own employees and members of the ruling PLD, party, says a report by the National Youth Action Network (RNAJ) released Wednesday.

The report lists political cronyism, ballooned travel expenses, irregular scholarships, duplication of functions, and concealment of public information, budget violations and other irregularities in the Youth Ministry’s last two tenures.

The report published by Citizen Participation says of its payroll of 134, 65 are secretaries and assistants, with salaries ranging from RD$6,723 to 43,000, despite performing the same function, “revealing a deep and suspicious wage gap.”

It also highlights cases such as the national delegation which recently attended a leadership course at Miami Dade College, Florida, whose airfares of RD$33,897, allegedly much more than the issuing agency charges customers for similar flights. “The Ministry placed the 22 deputy ministers removed in 2012 by President Danilo Medina in new positions in 2013, without any functional justification."

The report says Franklin Rodriguez made donations to four student associations of San Cristobal, especially to the former Minister’s native community of Cambita and cites examples of denial of information of public interest.

"The most significant part of this is that the Youth Ministry is a space for youth cronyism. This was evident in each of its actions, which respond to commitments and actions of political recruitment for the party in power," says the report disclosed at the Magna Hotel.