Spanish
Santo Domingo. – Former Minister of Finance, Daniel Toribio Marmolejos, questioned the transparency with which the current authorities have managed the funds obtained through international loans, which – according to him – remained unused for three years, despite the needs of the population.
In statements offered to journalist Héctor Herrera Cabral on the program D’AGENDA, broadcast by Telesistema channel 11 and TV Quisqueya for the United States, Toribio maintained that the problem was not the contracting of debt, but the lack of clarity in the destination of those resources.
“Are you going to last three years with that money saved while there are so many needs in Dominican society? It is not known to which institution that money was assigned. It could not go from the Treasury to the Reserve Bank or the Central Bank and back, because the correct procedure is to assign it to an institution that executes it,” he affirmed.
The former administrator of the Banco de Reservas also explained that this situation gives the impression that certain institutions may have spent resources they never used, which distorts budget reports, as income and expenses must appear balanced.
He also warned that at the end of each year, capital expenditure tends to skyrocket, which suggests that the funds may have been deposited in trusts or non-financial entities, ending up in Central Bank accounts.
"Inflated" reservations
Toribio also denounced that a significant part of the Central Bank's international reserves were "inflated" by those resources. When they were dismantled from US$15,000 million to just over US$13,000 million, according to him, a "growth with steroids" was evidenced.
"The Central Bank often pressures the Government to take on debt in order to increase its reserves. That cannot be considered provisional, as stated in some official documents, because that money lent during the pandemic is already four years old," he pointed out.
The economist added that these practices, along with the perception of a decrease in reserves, explain the upward pressure on the dollar and reflect contradictions in the government's discourse to justify the country's low economic growth.
