Data collected by Listín Diario through the Chamber of Deputies, and updated to February 12, helps us understand which delegates are the least attending and working, as well as the number of legislative initiatives they have presented, which are divided between resolutions and bills.
How long does a deputy work? Do they really justify the salary and benefits they receive? Both questions are common in any conversation centered on Dominican politics. And it is that the work of the delegates, for the salary they receive and the benefits they receive, is a point of constant criticism.
The responsibilities of the delegates are to draft, represent and supervise legislation, as enshrined in the Constitution of the Republic. But usually these attributions are summed up in two daily operations in the National Congress building: sessions and working committees.
Attendance at plenary sessions, the meetings of all alternates, is often an obligation, as is committees, with groups of up to 15 legislators where legislative initiatives on a specific topic are discussed and studied.
However, MEPs cannot fulfill these obligations, sometimes with valid excuses and sometimes without any form of justification, and they rarely receive sanctions for the number of times they fail to comply with those obligations.
The delegates choose how much they decide to work, as their responsibilities, at least within Congress, depend on the number of committees they belong to, an activity that in most cases is the legislature choosing whether or not to be a member.
While it is true that not all deputies can be put in the same bag, there are a few who stand out for their absence and not stand out for their work skill, according to the lower house’s own records.
Norberto Rodríguez Vasquez
The Deputy of the Modern Revolutionary Party (PRM), who represents Description No. 1 abroad, has red records in all his areas: of 41 work sessions he attended only 14 and therefore missed 27. That is to say, Rodríguez Vásquez has attended only 34% of the sessions in these first six months.
He is a member of four committees and has been called to 53 meetings, but attended only 10, absent 43 times. It has also made almost no achievement in presenting initiatives as it only presented a draft resolution that has lost all validity as it was an acknowledgment of then President of the United States, Donald Trump, ‘for sponsoring the agreement . between the State of Israel, the State of the United Arab Emirates and the State of Bahrain ”.
Victor Valdemar Suarez Diaz
To date, he is the second deputy to have missed work sessions most often, with 23 absences and only 18 attendees. He attended 43% of the sessions.
A worse situation occurred in the six committees of which it is a member, as it attended only 20% of the calls: of the 81 meetings it attended only 17 and missed 64 times.
Where it does show that it is performing better is legislative initiatives, as it is in favor of six bills and nine resolutions.
Magda Alina Altagracia Rodríguez Azcona
The PLD deputy for Santiago does not often attend work sessions, is absent 20 times and only attends 19.
The legislature presents a similar situation in committees, being a member of five, which convened a total of 33 meetings, in which it attended only nine.
Like her party partner, the deputy has shown more work on legislative initiatives, supporting 15 resolutions and six bills.
Luis Rafael Sánchez Rosario
The PRM deputy for Santo Domingo was absent 16 times and said he was only present in 25 sessions at the time of the roll call.
As for committees, he is a member of seven and has been called to 109 work meetings: he attended only 32 and missed 77.
The Deputy does not stand out when it comes to legislative initiatives, as he is only in favor of two resolutions.
Moya, Cabrera and Henríquez
The list includes Sergio Moya de la Cruz and José Miguel Cabrera, both from the National District, and Luis Manuel Henríquez Beato, from Santo Domingo, who share the same number of absences: 15 and 26 in attendance.
As far as committees are concerned, only Henríquez Beato, of the PLD, shows an average performance, as a member of seven committees, in which they convened 82 meetings and attended 47, without missing 35.
While Cabrera and Moya de la Cruz, both from the PRM, have low grades. The first is a member of four committees and attended only nine of 63 meetings, 54 of which are missing; while the second belongs to three who have paged 67 times, 12 are present and absent in 55.
On the other hand, Henríquez and Cabrera have nine resolutions in legislative initiatives, Moya eight, and the bill five, two and one respectively.
However, there is a detail with the legislative initiatives, and that is that while the delegates’ names are linked to some project, they weren’t necessarily the ones who wrote it in full.
A recent case serving as an example is the law creating the Special Zone for Integral Border Development, which was developed by Deputy Darío Zapata (after consensus was reached between the two chambers), but the names of an additional 55 lawmakers.
How much does a deputy charge and what benefit does he receive?
A “formula” unveiled by the Chamber of Deputies a few years ago indicates how much a deputy can earn in a month.
A lower house legislator has a guaranteed base salary of RD $ 175,474.65 and representation expenses of RD $ 35,094.93. These two amounts are safe, but to this is added another condiment, the “diet”.
And it is that the delegates can be fed a diet of up to RD $ 45,000 depending on their job performance.
In concrete terms, the formula establishes the following about this economic extra: “The daily fee per session is paid for each participation in a session without exceeding eight (8) per month. The daily fee amount for commission and sessions will never exceed RD $ 45,000.00 per month. Session days and days outside the legislature are not paid per day for committee meetings and the session that is not held is not paid ”.
To get an idea of how high these salaries are, it is helpful to know that a new alternate earns nearly 11 times the minimum wage of non-sectorized companies, set at RD $ 17,610 and 19 times the minimum wage of the public sector . that the former president of the republic, Danilo Medina, has set at 10,000 RD $.
And in addition to this high figure, the delegates also enjoy two exemptions, every two years, to bring a tax-free vehicle, as well as breakfast and lunch in the dining room they have within the Chamber of Deputies.
KNOWING MORE
What the constitution provides
Requirements
To be a Deputy, you must be a Dominican who fully exercises civil and political rights, have reached the age of 25, be a resident of the territorial demarcation they choose, or have resided there for at least 5 consecutive years. .
Composition.
A total of 168 deputies are elected by territorial constituency, five by accumulation of votes and seven representing the Dominican community abroad.