Throughout their history they have received public resources through transfers from the General State Budget and, according to the organizations themselves, they also have membership fees and other sources of income
SANTO DOMINGO. Budgetary records allow verification of a portion of the most recent and verifiable flow of current transfers from the Ministry of Tourism to non-profit associations (ASFL), published by the General Directorate of Budget (DIGEPRES).
How much international cooperation has reached each cluster in recent years, and under which projects, is a pending data point, as no recent documents were found that would allow attributing specific amounts to specific destinations.
The General State Budget Law 2025 included, under the chapter of the Ministry of Tourism, current transfers to five non-profit associations for a total of RD$18.5 million in the 2025 budget.
The five organizations are the Provincial Ecotourism Development Fund of the Monseñor Nouel Province RD$5 million, the Ecotourism Development Council of the Sánchez Ramírez Province RD$5 million, the Ecotourism Cluster of the Espaillat Province and Related Areas, Inc., RD$6.5 million, Happy Dolphins, Inc., RD$500,000 and the La Romana Bayahibe Tourism Cluster, Inc., with RD$1.5 million.
The Puerto Plata Destination Tourism Cluster does not appear on that 2025 list.
What the draft bill proposes for 2026
The National Center for the Promotion and Development of Non-Profit Associations (CASFL), attached to the Ministry of Economy, Planning and Development, prepares each year a preliminary budget for non-profit associations that recommends allocations per organization to the Executive Branch.
That preliminary draft is incorporated into the General State Budget Bill that the Executive submits to Congress and for the 2026 fiscal year, dated September 2025, recommended RD$30.5 million for six organizations under the Ministry of Tourism: the five from 2025, plus the Puerto Plata Destination Tourism Cluster, Inc., with RD$12 million.
If that recommendation remained unchanged until the enactment of Law 99-25, of December 16, 2025, which approves the General State Budget 2026, the result would be that Puerto Plata went from not being on the list of transfers to being, of the three organizations that have "cluster" in their name, the one that receives the highest allocation.
Assigning is not executing
A budget allocation does not, in itself, equate to the execution of the money, and CASFL itself describes the complete circuit: the organization requests funds through the Integrated Management System of ASFL (SIGASFL); the sectoral institution and CASFL evaluate the request; CASFL formulates a budget recommendation; that recommendation goes to the General Directorate of Budget; and, finally, it must be incorporated into the draft General State Budget and be approved by the National Congress.
Between allocation and execution, there is also a control mechanism. According to its own management report for the first half of 2025, the CASFL conducted 268 inspections of non-profit organizations nationwide and thirty compliance audit reports, in which it identified non-compliance and findings regarding inadmissible expenditures in some organizations.
This oversight mechanism is not exclusive to tourism clusters; it applies to the more than 700 non-profit organizations that receive public funds in the country. But it confirms that budget allocation is only the first link in a chain that includes accountability, inspection, and, when appropriate, sanctions.
What Law 122-05 requires to receive public funds
Law 122-05 provides that certain associations may be considered to receive funds from the General State Budget, provided that they meet the established requirements and have reached the minimum incorporation time provided for in the same text.
The CASFL, for its part, requires that non-profit organizations interested in public funds complete a process of legal incorporation, classification and sectoral authorization, in addition to registering in the National Registry of Authorization.
Among the evaluation criteria for each application, CASFL considers the organization's legal, administrative and financial compliance, its governance, its transparency and accountability mechanisms, the technical feasibility of the submitted project and, when the organization has already received funding before, the quality of its previous accountability reports.
Therefore, a key question for tracking cluster funds is not only how much appears allocated in the budget, but also how much was disbursed, how much was spent, what project it financed, and which institution audited each item.
Recommended readings:
