Reports of weaknesses in services in a state that is growing steadily

The limited progress toward reducing the state’s gigantic administrative payrolls, to which a new—and truly convenient—Justice portfolio is immediately added, is notable for the insufficient presence of agronomists in the fields and DIGESETT agents to control the traffic nightmare. This is a state whose registered nurses complain of carrying heavy loads and demand that vacancies in health centers be filled in a country with only three professional assistants per 10,000 inhabitants.

The Bar Association has been clear: the shortage of judges and courts hinders access to justice and delays proceedings. The 47,000-plus new public servants who expanded the official bureaucracy in the first quarter of 2025 should be scrutinized.

The difficulties faced in carrying out its vital role are evident—publicly acknowledged by more than one recent administration of the Ministry of the Environment—due to a shortage of personnel in addition to other limitations, such as financial ones. An essential agency for the protection of strategic areas, the implementation of reforestation programs, and for addressing the hardships of climate change, some past and present authorities have even declared themselves powerless in the face of the weaknesses of the system of consequences for those who violate environmental laws. It should be remembered that the judicial system responsible for punitive measures is insufficient to cope with the magnitude of civil disobedience.

The rapid job creation that characterizes the Dominican public sector brought its payroll to 754 last December, 825 of those so-called “incumbents” here, following the reaffirmation of powers to appoint and multiply official positions generated by the new electoral victory.

Even though there were many of them, with the Dominican Republic ranking fourth in Latin America in terms of super bureaucracies, surpassed only by truly vast countries like Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico, this multitude on the public treasury’s payroll welcomed what has already been mentioned: 47,049 people with brand-new monthly payments, a year-over-year growth of 7%, which cost taxpayers RD$336 billion pesos for the year, representing 6.2% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

It is clear that, with the tendency to exceed the amount of funds issued by checks, the Dominican government seems to be neglecting the hiring of qualified technicians required for agricultural development: there is a lack of adequately qualified professionals for specific areas such as hydraulic engineering and watershed management, which are essential for achieving long-term sustainable solutions for the productive use of water. Approximately 70% of the water that reaches the national territory through rainfall ends up in the sea, untapped. Although the country has the potential to feed its millions of inhabitants, $5.3 billion worth of agricultural products were imported last year. And the agronomists, where are they?

EMPTY POSITIONS

Among the diverse gaps in government administration, one stands out, revealed Wednesday at the Corripio Communications Group luncheon: The director of DIDA, the government agency for the protection of Social Security users, Mr. Elías Báez, reacted to the staff shortage that undermines his organization’s reach by saying: “It is inconceivable that the institution that should begin to manage funds to protect members is left with nothing because it is not of interest.” Words have been spoken!
Someone with knowledge of the matter said a few days ago about public administration: “There are 612 (official) areas without technicians. Where there are no technicians, the Government is not there,” and then criticized the lack of progress at that time in preparing land for small and medium-sized producers, who represent 70% of the national agricultural sector. “The State should be preparing three million tasks, but in this administration we have barely reached 800,000.”

Connecting with this panorama, economist Antonio Ciriaco proclaimed that “Capital investment in this Government is the lowest in 50 years” and referred to the fact that the country has reached four billion dollars in agricultural exports for three consecutive years, but in 2024, 5.3 billion dollars in agri-food products were imported, according to data from the Government itself that reflect a lack of dynamism in technological support for the countryside that should come from related entities.

In 2022, technicians from an opposition party described the agricultural sector as “in critical condition,” which they attributed to the fact that the State, especially the Ministry of Agriculture, was not taking appropriate action to provide professional assistance to lower-level producers and, instead of appointing more personnel for this task, had even dismissed hundreds of those already providing services.

Regarding the urgency of supporting production with specialized human resources, former Minister of Agriculture Osmar Benítez had emphasized the presence of agronomists and veterinarians in the field, saying that: “national agricultural production, both present and future, cannot be conceived without the existence of agricultural professionals whose efforts make possible not only the agri-food supply of the population but also of the millions of tourists and immigrants living in the country.”

WEAK ENTITIES

In recent statements to the press, the director of the Institute of Transit and Transportation ((ntrant) Milton Morrinson, lamented that the Directorate of Traffic Safety, DIGESETT, will only have 1,752 agents for the entire country, a figure of palpable insufficiency “to manage and put in order the vehicle fleet of the country that exceeds six million motor vehicles with the addition of millions of motorcycles, most of them without the slightest legal authorization to circulate. The Government turning a blind eye to the proliferation of rampant illegality and incurring in a disastrous omission.

Morrison has described the ridiculous number of traffic patrol officers as one of the key factors that makes the Dominican Republic one of the countries most affected by traffic accidents, while—we add—the government appoints, appoints, and appoints people at the expense of the treasury, who then go to bureaucratic positions unrelated to the nation’s priorities, and sometimes it is not even known how many there are or where they are.

POLICE SMALLNESS

Before the apparent move toward strengthening the police force with new blood and better training, the modesty of this step did not prevent alarm at the reality that crime has been a serious problem for some time, and that the assessment of the four-year period that concluded just six months ago in that institution indicated that the average number of its officers per municipality was ten.

As the twelve bells struck to close out the 2024 year, the country was experiencing a significant shortage of 280 police stations yet to be created.

It comforted public opinion that the government said it was already “working” to provide citizens (virtually cornered by crime in some places) with new enclaves to curb criminals. After senior officials in the sector discovered that the law enforcement vehicle fleet was in terrible condition, they promised to direct a major investment toward solutions.

In San Francisco de Macorís, a personnel audit determined that only 27 officers were actually available, although some were appointed without work due to patronage and cronyism. The town in the highly productive agricultural and livestock region of the northeast of the country is one of those affected by increased crime and the presence of drug trafficking.

Before 2025 arrived, during an interview on the radio program Panorama de la Tarde, one of the country’s most invoked specialists in citizen security, Daniel Pou, went so far as to claim that the Police had become a “rented agency with hundreds of officers assigned to private entities such as banks and supermarket chains, whose profits do not benefit the institution but rather the interests of their superiors.”

And for those interested in establishing the current location of the crowd that in recent years has been charged to the National Treasury, it is recalled that Pou also said that members of the press (who must have some prominence) benefited from the assignment of police officers as personal escorts, including members with the rank of captain who act as chauffeurs for the media mob.