From the Business as Usual dept.

(Today's DR1)

After all elections are over

Public Works Minister Victor Diaz Rua told reporters at Las Americas International Airport that the ministry's budget for fixing up roads and highways had been used up. The engineer said that the National Asphalt Plan had been carried out through public tenders with private construction companies, but the money has run out.
He said additional funding would need to be approved for this work to continue.

In an analysis in this week's Clave, economist Miguel Ceara-Hatton concludes that the number of people on government welfare programs and employed by the government add up to 2,022,325. He concludes that this means that 33.1% of the total registered voters in the 16 May election, 6,116,397, are directly receiving government funds.
"To have 33.1% of the voting population receiving monthly payments from the state is evidence of the perversion of the political system," he writes.

Through April 2010, 1,441,888 people were benefiting from government welfare plans - including Food Comes First, ILAE, Bonogas and Incentives for the Police and the Navy.
Ceara-Hatton announces that a report on "Social Policies: capacities and rights" prepared by the United Nations Human Development Office in the DR will be released on 9 June. It looks into these programs and makes the point that they are characterized as welfare, and do not help people to move out of poverty. Ceara-Hatton writes that the beneficiaries see these debit cards as a favor or a gift that they are receiving from the President as opposed to a right, and consequently feel they should be grateful. That gratitude means they cannot criticize or complain about the government."
He mentions that as of April 2010, the Controller General reported that there were 429,028 employees in the central government and 151,409 in the decentralized government sector.

Fart in your hat - it's free!