Santo Domingo.- The Minister of Education, angel hernandez assured this Wednesday that during his administration, the money from the Ministry of Education of the Dominican Republic (Minerd) “It has to pay off” and it has to be used for what the ministry “really needs.” Likewise, he added that there will be consequences for anyone who tries to take advantage of the resources that the State provides them.
This, in response to the “great waste of money” that he assures would have been taking place for “a long time” in the institution. As proof of this, he cited the large amount of “accumulated and even damaged” materials that he found in the warehouses of the schools and the ministry itself when he took office.
Among them were 70,000 pairs of shoes, hundreds of gallons of isopropyl alcohol and disinfectant gel, 400,000 laptops, more than a million out-of-date textbooks, 1,950 computer servers, 150 fully equipped industrial kitchens, among others. Many of which required investments that exceeded $1,300 million pesos.
To avoid “greater waste” he revealed that everything is being donated to the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo (UASD)the Ministry of Public Health (MSP), schools and other institutions that really need it and are going to give it a “real use”.
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For their part, the 1,950 servers will be used to create a creativity program, where young people who belong to different educational centers can take design classes and experience their talents.
He guaranteed that, during his tenure, all the tenders are being made based on the needs of each center in the country, so that “they are not bought to be saved, but to be placed in specific places.”
“Everything is being supervised by the purchasing committee that has to follow up through State purchases and contracts. However, the first supervisor of that is myself, so anyone who tries to put their hand in there will have consequences, ”he stressed.
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Hernández did not fail to mention the breaches of contracts found in the ministry and that have already had consequences or are in the hands of the authorities.
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“Many took advantage of the fact that Public Procurement establishes the advance of 20% of the budget and they pay you the rest as you complete the work, so they set about the task of winning the bidding contests, receiving their 20% and doing nothing don’t deliver anything.”
As a result, the Minerd has annulled the companies involved in this type of case, has requested that their certificates as State suppliers be eliminated, and has placed the cases directly in the hands of the Special Prosecutor’s Office for the Prosecution of Administrative Corruption ( PEPCA).
He also mentioned that a unit was created that is exclusively in charge of reviewing all the contracts signed since the start of the 4% for education, and in this way to know which ones were executed and which ones have not been fulfilled.
It is recalled that the Ministry of Education has already initiated a process for the recovery of more than $1,000 million pesos, which were delivered in advances of 20% to different contractors that have not complied with their obligations.
Their statements were issued at the Weekly Lunch of the Corripio Communications Group, where Ancell Scheker, vice minister of technical and pedagogical affairs also participated; Frank D`Oleo, vice minister of teaching accreditation and certification; Rolando Reyes, vice minister of planning and Rafael Alonso, director of communications.
