Day: February 14, 2023

Rijo Presbot presents management progress and the 2023 Budget Law to young entrepreneurs

Budget Director Leads Citizen Meeting with ANJE to Share Details on Law No. 366-22, the Private Sector as a Government Ally, and the Impact of Public Policies on Young Entrepreneurs. As part of the Citizen Meeting initiative, the Director General of the Budget, José Rijo Presbot, led a discussion with members and partners of the National Association of Young Entrepreneurs (ANJE) to present details on the 2023 General State Budget Law, its implementation, and planning in the context of global economic uncertainty. Jaime Senior, President of ANJE, gave the welcoming remarks and highlighted the organization's interest in hosting this meeting. “Our Economy and Energy Committee has always been particularly interested in analyzing the Budget. It's something we do every year, a very valuable exercise because it's one of the main tools used to implement public policies, especially those that impact young entrepreneurs,” Senior stated. According to the president of ANJE, the increased needs of recent years have required the government to develop a more comprehensive strategy to improve the quality of public spending for the benefit of the population and to stimulate social and economic growth. “At ANJE, we have always been allies of progress, of constant work to improve alongside all stakeholders and guarantee the well-being of society,” stated Senior, who described the Citizen Meeting as crucial to the association's purpose. For his part, Rijo Presbot began his presentation with basic aspects and the legal and constitutional framework of the Budget. “We define the Public Budget as an instrumental law based on the Constitution and ordinary legislation. It is a political, economic, cooperative, and social instrument,” noted the Budget Director. He emphasized the commitment this administration has made to linking the Budget to a plan and results through a value chain that allows for measuring its impact. He added that, “until our arrival, there was no direct link between the plan and the budget. Therefore, from the outset, we defined three strategic pillars that emerged from within the institution itself: efficient management, budget transparency and social oversight, and finally, institutional strengthening.” End to Illegal Debts During the Citizen Meeting, Rijo Presbot explained how, with the elimination of administrative debts, the government of President Luis Abinader has put an end to the old practice of incurring expenses not included in the budget, which for years had become illegal debts such as accounts payable. He emphasized that, according to the law, no institution can commit to an expenditure without first having the necessary budgetary appropriation. He also stated that in 2010, the administrative debt was only RD$1,430 million; however, by 2020, when the current government took office, RD$1,461,867 million of old administrative debt had been paid. He highlighted that in 2022, the administrative debt represented 11,330 million of the total debt. And this year, 21,330 million is budgeted. This is because, “since we took office, we included an article in the Budget Law stating that no official can enter into a transactional agreement that generates administrative debt, and anyone who does so will be responsible for paying it with their own assets.” 2022: A Positive Year-End According to Rijo Presbot, 2022 ended positively, with revenues exceeding projections and tangible results from internal savings and spending efficiency measures. “When we revised the budget in July, we estimated revenues of 151.3 trillion pesos, and we achieved 15.31 trillion pesos. This is a significant amount compared to the original budget, representing an increase of RD$1.4 trillion pesos compared to the budget we prepared in September 2021,” he stated. He also praised the prudent management of spending as the formula that allowed the government to respond to the natural disasters of 2022 and maintain subsidies without increasing the debt originally mandated by Congress. The Budget Director highlighted the private sector's role as a strategic ally of the government in actively generating jobs, reflecting the sector's confidence in President Abinader. “We must continue generating employment, and this creative and innovative employment must be generated by the private sector,” he said. This Citizen Meeting was coordinated by Leritza Monsanto, Claudia Finke, and Sol Disla, through ANJE's Economy and Energy Commission. Rijo Presbot was accompanied by a technical Budget team comprised of Sorangel González, Ana Miguelina Terrero, and Airon Fernández. It served as a platform to hear the contributions of young entrepreneurs and reaffirm the commitment to collaborative work between the government and civil society, using the Budget as a tool for citizen engagement.