“Mr. President Luis Abinader, most of us have outstanding tax obligations with the General Directorate of Internal Taxes (DGIIP). It is important to point out that, since we are unable to settle these commitments with said institution, we cannot obtain up-to-date tax payment certificates, which prevents us from participating in raffles and tenders for public works projects in the country,” they explain.
SANTO DOMINGO– A group of 107 construction professionals and small businesses, members of the Dominican College of Engineers, Architects and Surveyors (CODIA), to whom the Dominican State owes RD$385 million, have asked the government to begin amortizing the debt so they can celebrate Christmas dinner with their families.
“We are requesting through this channel that you grant the start of the amortization of this debt, with a partial payment now for the month of December so that we can bring a crumb of bread to our families during these Christmas holidays, who have stoically endured the hardships to which these hundreds of engineers have been subjected during these long years,” the Codiano Institutional Committee (CIC) states in a document.
They said that despite the meeting with the Deputy Minister of the Treasury of the Ministry of Finance, Derby De los Santos, along with the Director of Debt Recognition, Claudia Cabral, on November 2nd of this year, a definitive solution to their issue has not yet been proposed.
Emiliano Familia, coordinator of the CIC, specifies that on the 21st of this month they received a call from Mrs. Marelys Howley, in charge of following up on the case, who informed them that in two weeks they will be summoned for the first meeting with the vice minister De Los Santos.
“It is worth adding that the failure to pay these debts has led many construction professionals to die in poverty, having mortgaged what is most sacred to a family, their home, in many cases, and to suicide in others, in order to pay a State that ultimately abandons them to their fate,” the plaintiffs argue.
The debt that the government maintains with the group of contractors for works that were contracted, executed, supervised and put into service throughout the national territory, dates back to 1996 and includes the Ministry of Public Works and Communications (MOPC), Ministry of Housing and Buildings (MIVED), Central Electoral Board (JCE), National Institute of Hydraulic Resources (INDRHI), among other government entities.
“Mr. President Luis Abinader, most of us have outstanding tax obligations with the General Directorate of Internal Taxes (DGIIP). It is important to point out that, since we are unable to settle these commitments with said institution, we cannot obtain up-to-date tax payment certificates, which prevents us from participating in raffles and tenders for public works projects in the country,” they explain.
"During the visit on November 2nd to engineers Aníbal Rincón, Héctor Rizik, Ovidio Rosario and architect Familia, a delegation representing those affected, they were promised to create a working group between the Treasury, the debtor institutions and the CIC Strategy Commission," declared Emiliano Familia, spokesperson.
He explained that the same deputy minister committed to personally following up "with regard to the issue of institutions such as the former Office of Supervising Engineers of State Works (OISOE), the Ministry of Housing and Buildings (MIVED), the Ministry of Public Works and Communications (MOPC) and the National Institute of Drinking Water and Sewerage (INAPA), to begin the work.".
The hopeful spirits of the contractors, once renewed, are now despairing as Christmas approaches and the government has not given them an answer, despite having processed the payment since the beginning of Abinader's administration.
