Despite wasting millions on cronies, Dominican government can’t pay cops a living wage

Santo Domingo.-Despite the millions of dollars wasted on political cronyism and high salariesfor officials who don’t have any function, Dominican Republic´s government on Wednesday claimed a lack of funds toraise the salary of police agents, whose current base wage is RD$5,500 (US$122)per month.

Economy ministerTemístocles Montas called the demand to raise the salaries of police, the militaryand other sectors "reasonable," but argued that the government doesn’thave enough funds to do so.

The issue of the surprisinglylow police wages – the lowest in the hemisphere second only to Nicaragua, hasswamped the social networks, after police officer Daurin Muñoz uploaded a videothat went viral, complaining about his monthly net salary of RD$5,800 (US$130.)

"The problem isthat the amount of resources received by the government are such thatallocating 4% of GDP to education, allocating 6.7% to service the debt,allocating 2% to health and about 2 % transfers to the electricity sector, justthat takes all the government revenue," Montas said.

The official said whileraising salaries is reasonable, especially the military and police, it´s alsotrue that the state needs more funds. "I think concomitantly that it shouldbe understood that we have to make sure that the government obtains moreresources to tackle these problems in the Dominican Republic."