Top Dominican official should come clean on US ‘no transparency’ charge

Santo Domingo.- The group of overseers assigned by Presidency chief of staff Gustavo Montalvo should explain why Washington accused Dominican Republic of a lack of transparency in the report that singles out his department.

Minority FNP deputy Vinicio Castillo on Thursday said the country should get a reaction from the group of civil society overseers headed by the journalist Juan Bolivar Diaz, one of the government’s harshest critics.

"My request stems from the fact that the US State Dept. report is very specific when referring to the lack of transparency and information on spending by the office of the Presidency’s Chief of Staff," Castillo said, noting that Montalvo appointed a group of prominent people as observe of the Presidency’s operations.

"That’s why I formally ask them to explain if they agree with this disturbing State Dept. accusation, or on the contrary, if they reject it because it cites, according to the US, an amount totaling 9% of the government budget,” the lawmaker said.