Minority party row shows pillaging of Dominican government agencies

Santo Domingo.- The traditional pillaging of Dominican Republic’s government agencies by politicians assigned the senior positions has come to the fore during the last few days as accusations of corruption fly within the minority PRSC party, part of the ruling coalition headed by the PLD.

Senior PRSC leader Humberto Salazar asked his party colleagues who hold government posts and support its breakaway with the PLD to submit their resignation, just hours after accusing PRSC president Federico Antun (Quiqui) of taking RD$12.0 million from the State-owned National Housing Bank (BNV).

But Antun, who’s also president of the PRSC and heads the BNV, on Thursday declined a response to the alleged embezzlement and instead opted to talk about the Bank’s future conversion to an Export Bank.

When pressed for a response to Salazar’s charges, the official said “I prefer not to speak about that person.”

When Dany Alcantara on Hoy Mismo Channel 9 again asked why he promotes the rupture while still keeping his job at the BNV, Antun said “it was a political alliance which lasted only up to the election” (of president Danilo Medina.)

Salazar, who heads the Health Sector Reform Commission (CRSS), notes that coherence dictates that if the PRSC leadership really wants a split with the PLD, then they must also resign from their Government posts and head directly to the opposition. "We must lead by example and I ask the chairman of my party, engineer Federico Antún Batlle, to resign as head of the BNV and fully engage in the partisan tasks of the opposition."

"Every PRSC member who’s a civil servant must resign, go to the opposition and make way for those who want to enter the Government," Salazar said in a statement.