Disorder and lack of transparency in the public administration returned to the center of the political debate after the PLD’s denunciation of the PRM Government‘s management. The opposition maintains that the State has lost control over its human resources, payroll, and merit mechanisms.
The accusation was presented by the Peledeista vice president Zoraima Cuello, during the Monday press conference at the National House Reinaldo Pared Pérez, where also participated Temístocles Montás, Yván Lorenzo and other administrative area leaders of the party.
According to the PLD, the Ministry of Public Administration itself has shown signs that the State does not know with precision how many employees it has, how many are assigned to each institution, and who is actually providing service. That situation, the organization affirms, reflects disorder and lack of transparency in state management.
The opposition party also alleges that there are servers appointed in a province but who work in another, people who are still on the payroll although they are outside the country, and registered positions as occupied without the service being executed.
Disorder and lack of transparency according to the PLD
The Peledeista leadership maintains that the problem does not respond to the absence of technological tools, but to the institutional continuity break and to a clientelar management of the State. In their reading, that deterioration has weakened the administrative career and has favored the growth of a non-merit public payroll.
The PLD recalls that at the end of its management the SASP would have incorporated around 97% of the Government Central employees, while the SISMAP functioned as a reference of institutional performance. Also, it points out that República Digital took over a thousand services to the electronic environment and reduced times of procedures.
The PLD’s proposal on public administration
Among its proposals, the party asks to publish institution by institution the evolution of the payroll since August 2020, detail the monthly expenditure and disclose how many servers have entered the administrative career by competition. It also proposes making the evaluation by merit obligatory to enter and remain in the State.
- Publicize the evolution of the public payroll.
- Inform the monthly expenditure by institution.
- Disclose competitions and appointments by merit.
- Audit the administrative career and management systems.
Disorder and lack of transparency and the debate on merit
The issue is not new in the Dominican public discussion. Transparency in the payroll, digitalization of services, and control of state personnel usually appear as sensitive points in any administration due to their direct impact on expenditure and citizen confidence.
For the PLD, the most worrying data is the reduction of personnel incorporated by competition: it affirms that in August 2020 there were around 94,000 servers in the administrative career and that today the figure is around 60,000. That difference, it sustains, coincides with an increase in clientelar hiring.
The party concludes that the Dominican public administration needs to recover merit, strengthen controls, and correct the disorder and lack of transparency attributed to the PRM Government, a demand that puts again under pressure the state employment management and accountability.
