Overseers regret ´opacity´ in Dominican Gov. agencies

Santo Domingo.- The Presidency Ministry´s OversightCommittee on Tuesday said it regrets that government agencies still fail to provideinformation which people have the right to obtain, and the ´opacity´ underwhich they proceed .

"We recognize that there´re still a culture ofdiscretion in many state institutions, which are reluctant to fulfill theirduty to provide the information requested by the public in a timely andappropriate manner," said Evangelical Church representative Raffy Paz, whospoke for the commissioners.

He said they’re informing about the situation to "exertthe necessary pressure to reduce levels of opacity" in governance as acontribution which oversight committees can provide as a result of theirobservations and monitoring.

The Committee lauded the efforts of the Presidency Ministryand the Public Procurement Directorate for their actions he assures are transparent.

"The Oversight Commission of the Ministry of thePresidency, during these two years and five months, has been working on itsinternal strengthening, knowledge of the rules of public procurement, in definingthe mechanisms of monitoring and follow-up in purchasing and procurementcarried out by the Ministry during the period indicated," Paz said.

The prelate said to achieve that there must be atimely and efficient delivery of the public information required, which affirmsis available on the Ministry website.

He stated further that the Commission has made recommendationsto improve communication mechanisms between the Ministry and the providers.

The prelate´s statement comes just one week after fiveof the seven members of the National Child Welfare Institute´s (INABIE) OversightCommission resigned in protest for that agency´s failure to produce the informationthey had requested.

Paz spoke in a press conference attended by commissionersJavier Cabreja, Esteban Prieto, Carlos Fondeur, Serbio Tulio Castaños, Carlos Villaverdeand Jesus Armenteros.