The plenary session of the Chamber of Accounts of the Dominican Republic (CCRD) reported yesterday that it sent 50 files to the Specialized Prosecutor’s Office Against Administrative Corruption (Pepca) on audits carried out on government institutions in the last 12 months, which contain possible irregularities.
The president, Emma Polanco, explained when performing her first act of accountability before the National Congress that the supervisory body is only responsible for processing cases to the Public Ministry where they identify “indications of corruption.” However, as indicated, they do not have to follow up on subsequent procedures, which is why they do not know if the PEPCA submitted any file.
“Our role is to finish it and send it to the Public Ministry. The Public Ministry evaluates and is the one who makes the decision. We are not sanctioners, the only thing we do is evaluate all the evidence: we see that there are indications, so we send it to the PEPCA,” she stated when interviewed by reporters.
Polanco did not specify which government entities or State bodies are on the list of audits in which possible irregularities were observed.
On the other hand, he announced that at the beginning of next month the CCRD would be publishing the officials who have not yet submitted their sworn declaration of assets, failing to comply with the mandates established in Law 311-14.
Salary increase
Emma Polanco referred for the first time to the resolution approved by the plenary session of that body to increase the salary of its members by 50%.
In this way, Polanco was going to receive a reward of around RD$600,000 per month; while the other members of the plenary session would reach approximately RD$500,000.
However, on April 9, the CCRD plenary session annulled resolution ADM-2026-017, nullifying the salary increase to be in line with the Government’s austerity policy.
Despite this, Polanco assured when interviewed by reporters in the National Congress that the measure did not have the objective of achieving a “salary increase”, but rather an incentive “for the hard work” carried out in the current administration, which has been in office for about a year.
“We have not talked at any time about salaries, we have talked about motivation, an incentive for the hard work that the Chamber of Accounts has done,” he stated.
As Polanco detailed, the five members of the CCRD plenary session understood that they deserved the “incentive” for efficiency in their work, compared to the previous board headed by former president Janel Ramírez.
“We worked on 90 audits; the last administration worked on only two audits in one year. We have worked on the sworn statements; in Santiago de los Caballeros we have 10 audits that we must constantly follow up on. So, nothing, we understood…”, he said.
However, Polanco indicated that “that is now in the past.”
“But that is now in the past. Our commitment is to work and give results to the country,” he stated.
This position arises from the impact caused by the news on society and the request made by the president of the Senate of the Republic, Ricardo de los Santos, who warned him that this measure was unconstitutional.
They ask for more budget
Polanco revealed that the entity is registering a personnel deficit, since in the country there are 1,440 auditable entities and currently they only have 300 inspectors. It is for this reason that, according to their statements, they need to hire 200 auditors, which would have an annual cost individually of approximately two million pesos.
“We have 300 auditors and we need 200 more because we have 1,440 auditable entities in the country and each audit takes between 8 or 9, depending on the audit that is going to be carried out. Each auditor needs to adopt all the technological tools that are virtual: licenses, good laptops… annually almost two million for each auditor,” he said.
He was accompanied to the event by the vice president, Francisco Tamárez Florentino, along with members Francisco Franco, Ramón Méndez Acosta and Griselda Gómez Santana.
