Leading newspaper, Insurance chief lock horns over transparency

Santo Domingo.- Insurance superintendent Euclides Gutiérrez Félix’s refusal to disclose the documents on the current status of the liquidated insurance company of the failed bank Baninter has led one of Dominican Republic’s leading newspapers to wage a campaign for their release, based on the Freedom of Information Act.

Newspaper Diario Libre on Wednesday reports that Gutierrez’s refusal to clarify the assets from the Official Liquidator Commission of the insurance company Seguros Segna, S. A., “affects the image of transparency that the administration headed by Mr. Danilo Medina and the Dominican Liberation Party (PLD) want to offer.”

Citing a poll, the daily said politicians and ordinary people agree that they “don’t understand Dr. Gutiérrez Félix’s attitude, which not only affects his personal image, but the Government and his party.”

The official has “always been a contradictor, but it is illogical that cases like this involving him in a Government that has embraced transparency with a firm intention," it said, quoting an attorney. “Data from Segna’s liquidation have a public character, according to the Supreme Court ruling of 5 December 2012.”