Statistics Office Receives Donation from European Union Through ONFED for SINID

The funds in this agreement are earmarked to be put into use in a system. The National Statistics Office will receive international technical assistance through a donation for the completion of the second Budget Program, “System of Indicators for Social and Economic Planning.” It was agreed upon within the framework of the Program for Institutional Support for the Management of Public Finances (PAIGFP), coordinated by the Finance Ministry and funded by the European Union through the Organizing Office of the European Development Fund (EDF).

The budget, 41,397,199.47 pesos, is earmarked for hiring national and international technical assistants, training, distributing information

The budget, 41,397,199.47 pesos, is earmarked for hiring national and international technical assistants, training, distributing information, purchasing supplies and covering the costs of the project.

This initiative is part of the Dominican government´s goal to strengthen the National Statistics System (SEN) which, since August of 2004, has been developing a series of actions meant to carry out major changes and to provide assurances regarding the way information is produced, distributed and made available for public as well as private use.

To carry out this project, the Statistics Office recently signed a cooperation agreement with the European Union through the EDF with the object of providing the government, through a system of statistic indicators, with information for the planning and management of public finances. This would cover institutional and organizational processes and legal procedures as well as human resources areas with the goal of guaranteeing the implementation of public funding in a regular, efficient, transparent and results-oriented fashion.

According to the clauses included in the financial agreement, the project will have technical and financial autonomy for the management of its resources. It will be administered by Pablo Tactuk, National Director of the ONE. The agreement runs from September 1, 2008 through March 1, 2010.

Mr. Tactuk noted that “this program´s budget is part of the general goal of the PAIGFP, which seeks to contribute to the improvement of the quality of life for all Dominicans, thanks to some government institutions that have the capacity to garner resources, provide public services and carry out policies in a coherent manner, according to that which is provided in the final document of the project. “

“This initiative foresees the contribution to improve the effectiveness and regularization of the budgetary process as well as making information reliable and systematically available to the government…

These modernizing actions allow for the strengthening of the Statistics Office, a leading organization and regulator of the system which is involved, on an advanced technical level, in the generation and use of information and development of support infrastructures from the global perspective of articulation and normalization of the National Statistics System (SEN), while visualizing it as a centralized normative system and a decentralized operating system.

“This initiative foresees the contribution to improve the effectiveness and regularization of the budgetary process as well as making information reliable and systematically available to the government to carry out the defining and implementation of public policy planning,” according to Domingo Jiménez, General Director of the Organizing Office of the European Development Fund (EDF). He added that the project is the result of a successful decision that enjoys the excellent technical capacity and good will of the National Statistics Office team.

The project was introduced at a press conference given by ONE and presided over by the head of the European Delegation in the Dominican Republic, Alicia Escuín who was accompanied by the Deputy Treasury Minister of the Finance Ministry, María Felisa Gutiérrez; the Director of the Organizing Office of the European Development Fund (EDF) Domingo Jiménez, and the National Director of ONE, Pablo Tactuk.

National ONE Director, Pablo Tactuk speaking to those attending the presentation of the Budget Program No. 1, the “System of Indicators for Social and Economic Planning” of the National Statistics Office (ONE).

The Deputy Treasury Minister of the Finance Ministry and National Coordinator of the Program for Institutional Support for the Management of Public Finances (PAIGFP),, María Felisa Gutiérrez; head of the European Delegation in the Dominican Republic, Alicia Escuín; Director of the Organizing Office of the European Development Fund (EDF) Domingo Jiménez; National Director of ONE, Pablo Tactuk and the General Manager of Technical Coordination and International Cooperation, Clara Báez.