Dominican Republic to Strengthen Public Sector Transparency, Integrity with IDB Support

SANTO DOMINGO – The Dominican Republic is implementing reforms to enhance and consolidate public sector transparency and integrity along with promoting citizen participation in controlling public spending with support from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). This was one of the topics highlighted during a meeting of the Regional Policy Dialogue on Transparency and Integrity, an annual event organized by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), and the IDB in collaboration with the General Directorate of Government Ethics and Integrity (DIGEIG) of the Dominican Republic.

The Dominican Republic is working with the IDB on an ambitious investment program to advance reforms that will strengthen and consolidate the government procurement system’s integrity mechanisms. The plan will also help strengthen domestic control processes, foster open government and public ethics, and support the implementation of public spending transparency policies. The IDB’s financial and technical support seeks to promote the Bank’s integrity and transparency agenda in the Dominican Republic.

The Cabinet for Transparency, Prevention, and Public Spending Control was created in late 2020 by the Dominican Republic as a unit within the office of the president. The cabinet is tasked with promoting public policies, directives, and mechanisms among government agencies to meet challenges in the fields of ethics, transparency, efficiency, and investment and public spending effectiveness.  

"These support efforts show our commitment to transparency and integrity in Latin America and the Caribbean as this area is key to promoting a sustainable and inclusive post-pandemic economic recovery within our Vision 2025 strategy,” said IDB Invest CEO James P. Scriven, who represented the Bank during the opening event.

“By supporting countries in advancing their transparency and integrity agendas, we are promoting a better use of public resources and sending a strong signal that our region is strengthening the rule of law and its institutions. This is important to attract private investments that will be vital pillars to sustain our region’s continued development.”

The Dominican Republic seeks to leverage digital technologies to enhance and strengthen its national government procurement web portal. It also plans to encourage information exchange among government databases, especially in the areas of public investment and financial management.

Increased interoperability between systems will boost access to information and allow the implementation of processes and internal controls related to public procurement transparency and integrity. The IDB’s support will also help the country promote integrity policies to fight corruption that can be implemented by both the government and the private sector.

IDB is the leading multilateral institution financing and providing technical assistance to transparency, integrity, and corruption control projects in Latin America and the Caribbean. With more than $23 million in technical cooperations approved since 2007 to improve transparency and integrity in the public and private sectors in the region, our member countries have implemented loan programs for more than 2 billion dollars for this agenda.