Santo Domingo.- Teodoro Tejada, former president of the College of Engineers, Architects and Surveyors (CODIA) warned that the Minister of Education Ángel Hernández goes beyond his functions by allocating resources to the International Cooperation Office (OCI) to build schools, daycare centers and maintain school infrastructure.
He argued that the International Cooperation Office (OCI) does not have the authority to manage resources for the construction, repair and maintenance of school infrastructure, as Minister Hernández has ordered.
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The Minerd violates the General Budget Law of the Nation by allocating resources to the International Cooperation Office (OCI) to build schools, daycare centers and provide maintenance for which the OCI has no authority.— Teodoro Tejada (@teodorotejada) July 19, 2024
He highlighted that there is an agency in that department, created by Decree No. 661-22 dated November 7, 2022, which in its article 3. The School Infrastructure Directorate is created to establish policies and standards regarding architectural designs, remodeling and maintenance of school buildings, as an area directorate of the Ministry of Education.
He recalled that it was decentralized by decree no. 313-24 dated June 7, 2024, in its first article, which orders the functional decentralization of the School Infrastructure, created by Decree no. 661-22 as an area directorate of the Ministry of Education.
Tejada explained in his X account that the OCI was conceived to advise, manage financial and technical resources, and support strategic projects with international cooperation programs that the portfolio has on its agenda.
He understands that it is a mistake that the Minister of Education has allocated millions of pesos for the construction of a daycare center and administrative offices in Educational District 02-01 of the El Pino section, Comendador municipality, in the province of Elías Piña.
The construction businessman also added that the Vice Minister of Decentralization and Participation of the MINERD is wrong when she justifies that Minister Hernández has allocated millions of pesos for the maintenance of infrastructure in schools, because he lacks the authority to do so.
He pointed out that neither Minister Hernández nor the Vice Ministry of Decentralization and Participation have the legal authority to assign functions to an ad hoc body in the educational system, because Article 141 of the Constitution of the Republic assigns these prerogatives to the National Congress.
Tejada recalled that the Constitution establishes: “The law will create autonomous and decentralized bodies in the State, provided with legal personality, with administrative, financial and technical autonomy. These bodies will be attached to the administration sector compatible with their activity, under the supervision of the minister in charge of the sector. The law and the Executive Branch will regulate the policies of decentralization of the services of the Public Administration.”
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