VZCZCXYZ0003
RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHDG #0086/01 0141938
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 141936Z JAN 10
FM AMEMBASSY SANTO DOMINGO
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 0530
INFO WHA CENTRAL AMERICAN COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS SANTO DOMINGO 000086 
 
SIPDIS 
STATE FOR EEB/IFD/OMA 
STATE ALSO FOR WHA/CAR 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: EFIN EAID ECON PREL DR
SUBJECT: Fiscal Transparency for the Dominican Republic 
 
REF: 10 STATE 1923; 10 SANTO DOMINGO 3 
 
¶1. (U) This cable responds to Ref A request regarding information 
on the transparency of the budget of the Government of the 
Dominican Republic (GoDR). 
 
 
 
¶2. (U) The questions and answers follow: 
 
-- Is the central government expected to receive funding under the 
FY 2010 SFOAA? 
 
(U) Yes. 
 
 
 
-- Is the host country's annual national budget publicly available? 
 
(U) Yes.  The Senate (http://www.senado.gov.do/PortalSILSenado/) 
has the complete versions of the 2009 and 2010 budgets on its 
website.  The Office of Public Credit in the Ministry of Hacienda ( 
http://www.creditopublico.gov.do/ingles/index .htm) has a condensed 
version of the 2009 budget law on its website); this version does 
not include the annexes that detail the line items for the 
individual ministries.  The Directorate General of the Budget in 
the Ministry of Hacienda does not appear to have published the 
budget on its website, but did provide Econoff with a CD containing 
the information upon request. 
 
 
 
-- Are incomes and expenditures included in the publicly-available 
budget?  What is post's assessment of the extent to which the 
publicly-available budget accurately reflects actual government 
incomes and expenditures? 
 
 
 
(U) The budget does include incomes and expenditures.  However, the 
information covers only broad categories of expenditures, with the 
budgets of most government ministries and offices detailed in one- 
or two-page spreadsheets.  More troubling, the Office of the 
Presidency (see Ref B) has been allotted over USD 1.2 billion of 
the USD 10.5 billion (or 11.4 percent) of the 2010 budget, similar 
to previous years.  Large sections of the budget of the Presidency 
- similar to the ministries and offices - are undetailed.  See para 
3 for comment. 
 
 
 
-- Have there been any events since the 2009 review that may have 
affected fiscal transparency (e.g., a coup)? 
 
(U) No. 
 
 
 
-- Since last year's review, what efforts has the host government 
undertaken to improve fiscal transparency? What progress has been 
made, pursuant to the 2009 demarches on the subject (reftels)? 
 
 
 
(SBU) Some progress has been made since the last review.  The 2010 
budget contains new - and extremely useful - reports that detail 
the fiscal policy the government used to guide its drafting of the 
budget as well as its plans for the 2011 and 2012 budgets, given 
the impact of the recently-approved International Monetary Fund 
Standby Agreement.  Moreover, the Office of Public Credit included 
details of the projects it plans on financing in 2010 as specific 
items in the budget.  However, the failure of the GoDR to cease 
allocating over 10 percent of the budget to the Presidency and to 
provide detailed line items outlining the budgets of the ministries 
and offices continues to raise serious concerns over the 
transparency of the budget. 
 
 
 
¶3. (SBU) COMMENT:  EconChief met with officials from the 
Directorate General of the Budget on January 7 to discuss the 
budget.  The officials described the budget process, which starts 
in July or August with the preparation of a preliminary report. 
The budget is presented to Congress somewhere in the late fall and 
it is first considered by a bicameral joint commission before 
heading to the floors of each house.  The officials noted that 
 
congressional procedures make it difficult to change the budget 
when it is introduced for debate, so the version that leaves the 
joint committee is usually final.  In response to EconChief's 
questions regarding the lack of detailed line items, the officials 
noted that the Dominican Congress had never asked for more detailed 
information than the GoDR usually provided.  As such, once the 
budget is passed, the budget office works with the various 
ministries and offices to fill in the blanks.  As noted in Ref B, 
EconChief also asked about the requirement that the GoDR allocate 
four percent of GDP to education spending.  In response, the 
officials noted that approximately 25 mandatory spending 
requirement laws exist (e.g., the budget should allocate 10 percent 
of funds directly to the municipalities), but that each budget 
contained language exempting the government from these requirements 
if it failed to meet them. 
Lambert