The high cost of lawsuits against the Dominican State

SANTO DOMINGO.- From 2018 to date, the Dominican State has had to disburse more than 9,582 million pesos to comply with court rulings against it. This expense, which is equivalent to an average of 1,368 million pesos per year or 114 million pesos monthly, represents a significant impact on the country's public finances and highlights a structural crisis in the state management of litigation, contracts and citizen rights. The condemnations against the State come from a wide range of legal causes: claims for damages, poorly executed expropriations (fair price), labor disputes, and claims for professional fees. Each of these sentences reflects a previous conflict not adequately resolved by some public institution, and translates into a financial obligation that, as a whole, drains the resources of the treasury. Some public institutions have been repeatedly affected by these rulings. For example, the Ministry of Environment had to pay in 2024 more than 261 million pesos for just two court decisions. In the case of National Assets, more than 769 million pesos were disbursed during 2019, one of the highest figures recorded by a single entity in that period. The State Sugar Council (CEA), for its part, made payments exceeding 1,124 million pesos between 2018 and 2021, mostly due to lawsuits related to poorly managed expropriations and damages to individuals. The Ministry of Interior and Police tops the list in terms of the number of sentences against it, accumulating at least 26 cases that have ended in convictions with financial obligations. Institutions such as the Dominican Port Authority, the Price Stabilization Institute (INESPRE), the Dominican Agrarian Institute (IAD), and the National Institute of Hydraulic Resources (INDRHI) also appear, among others that, although they do not always head the highest amounts, face multiple legal proceedings that translate into sustained financial commitments.

Beyond the amounts, one of the most serious problems is the State's delinquency in fulfilling these sentences. Numerous citizens and companies that have won lawsuits wait for years for the execution of the corresponding payments. Some emblematic cases demonstrate this situation in a forceful way: a citizen had to wait more than a decade for the execution of a sentence that awarded her 13 million pesos, while another lawsuit, with a final ruling since 2006, was not paid until 2019. These delays not only reflect administrative inefficiency, but also generate additional costs for the State, such as accumulated interest or subsequent legal actions.

Between 2021 and 2024, the General Directorate of the National Police has been the entity most condemned for constitutional protection actions, with payments exceeding 20 million pesos. These cases, although with smaller amounts than other civil or administrative sentences, reveal a pattern of violations of fundamental rights that end up being judicially corrected and, once again, financed with public money.

This institutional behavior raises a series of questions about the State's ability to prevent legal conflicts and adequately manage administrative processes. In many cases, convictions arise from negligence, omission, or bad faith in decision-making, either by failing to comply with legal procedures, carrying out expropriations without fair compensation, dismissing personnel without the corresponding guarantees, or breaching contracts signed with third parties. The impact of this situation on public finances is not insignificant. Every peso that the State must allocate to the payment of a sentence is a peso that is not invested in social programs, health, education, or infrastructure. The phenomenon, although silent, represents one of the least visible but most constant ways of public resource leakage. The payment of sentences is not usually in the crosshairs of public debate, but year after year it consumes a relevant part of the budget of several state institutions. In addition to the economic aspect, the negative effect on citizens' trust in institutions is added. When a person wins a case in court and has to wait years to receive compensation, the perception of justice and efficiency is seriously affected. In many of these cases, the beneficiaries are people with limited resources or small businesses that depend on the timely fulfillment of the ruling to move forward. The high number of lawsuits against the Dominican State reflects a deeper crisis: the urgent need for institutional reforms to improve public procurement processes, human resource management, real estate management, and administrative conflict resolution. It is also vital to strengthen the internal legal advice of public entities, as well as establish more rigorous control mechanisms to prevent management errors from generating millions in liabilities for the State. The current reality is that administrative errors, lack of legal foresight, and state arrears have a high and direct cost for the country. And what is most worrying is that all citizens end up paying that cost.