SANTO DOMINGO: Dominican Republic´s Accounts Chamber on Wednesday confirmed that during president Leonel Fernandez administration Customs Agency officials rewrote an internal regulation, to distribute millions of pesos among its senior officials.
In its report on the Customs budget for 2010 the Chamber reveals a change in the Internal Code on the way to distribute the funds among Customs staff, which allowed the director and other senior officials not included in the Regulation to obtain the money resulting from fines to people who violate customs procedures.
The audit just on the January-December 2010 period revealed incentives payments at Customs of more than RD$2.2 billion, but distributed among employees who allegedly received just 2,500 to 10,000 pesos every three months.
Instead, then Customs director Rafael Camilo was paid incentives of RD$8.3 million in just one year, violating Law 14-94, the Accounts Chamber said in its report.
Article 9 of the Customs Act stipulates that the Customs Director, the National Coordinator and other members of the project to reform and modernized customs don’t qualify for the incentives stemming from the levied fines.
The regulation also stipulates that 25% of the amount of the fines will be distributed among staff, government agencies, or private entities which uncover or notify tax evasion or customs fraud.
