The country’s Foreign Service still the laughing stock abroad

Santo Domingo.- President Danilo Medina has left Dominican Republic’s Foreign Service intact and despite a "revolution" promised during his election campaign, has failed to set it forth in his first two years in office.

The results have led to lagoons in the Foreign Affairs Ministry’s Foreign Service left by the previous Administration, making it a white elephant with a ballooned payroll and one of Medina’s apparently failed policies.

As the country’s gargantuan representations abroad exploded, Medina opted to pass the crisis on the Office of the Comptroller General, which now controls the payrolls of the hundreds of diplomats, dozens of which allegedly charge rentals and other expenses despite not living in the countries where they’re assigned.

And although the measure resolved the crisis for now, it failed to cull the number of diplomats, or the government’s promise to send young professionals to represent the country abroad so they become agents of business to draw investments or make sure the Foreign Service is no longer “the best paid vacation."

The hundreds of vice consuls, assistants and advisors in Dominican consulates and embassies who’re paid to stay home in the Dominican Republic maintain the country as the laughing stock abroad.

Outlet diariolibre.com.do reported on several cases, such as the 95 vice consuls in the United States, 36 of them in New York, also 102 auxiliaries, 54 of them in that city. A vice consul’s base salary of US$1,750 per month can quadruple when travel expenses and other perks are added.