They celebrated a mass six years after the suicide of an architect at the OISOE headquarters
Taken from Diario Libre
13 million pesos by the government since 2012. He is one of 302 construction professionals to whom the government currently owes RD$1.5 billion, according to a statement released Saturday by the Codiano Institutional Committee (CIC).
“I sold my equipment and my heavy vehicle. My apartment is mortgaged,” Núñez said before the start of the mass in memory of architect David Rodríguez, who committed suicide at the headquarters of the Office of Supervising Engineers of State Works (OISOE) and uncovered a corruption case.
“This situation of not paying that debt has caused us several problems. Bankruptcy problems, debt problems with the banks,” Núñez said. He indicated that another factor contributing to the payment default is having to sell their work equipment.
The CIC asked the President of the Republic, Luis Abinader, to order his officials to develop a "sensible" plan to include a mechanism for paying the debts that 16 state institutions have with construction professionals.
Some of the institutions that mentioned owing money include the Ministry of Education, the Office of Supervising Engineers of State Works (OISOE), the National Institute of Drinking Water and Sewerage (INAPA), the National Housing Institute (INVI), and the National Institute of Hydraulic Resources (INDRHI). Also on the list are the Central Electoral Board (JCE), the Santo Domingo Water and Sewerage Corporation (CAASD), and the Attorney General's Office (PGR).
Similarly, the Ministry of Public Works, the Mayor's Office of the National District, the Ministry of Agriculture, the Presidential Commission for Support to Provincial Development, among others.
“ ‘Get paid while you’re alive ,’ that’s our motto,” said engineer Núñez, adding that many construction professionals have died without ever receiving payment.
Emiliano Familia, general secretary of the CIC, in a document read at the ceremony, called out to society for the "insensitivity, injustice, and refusal" of the Government and its officials to "not want" to honor the payment of the debt to the contracting engineers.
“But these, in turn, have become bourgeois and are intoxicated with power, forgetting that governments are NOT eternal,” Familia said.
On the other hand, he accused past PLD governments of contracting works without funds so that engineers and architects would finance them or "resort to suicide, as has happened in the last 25 years.".
More debt
Civil engineer Nelson Núñez explained that these 302 professionals are part of what is called the "old debt group," because there are two other groups to whom the State also owes money. These are the individuals who built schools and hospitals.
