Dominican Republic Comptroller Geraldo Espinosa Pérez has defended his office's refusal to publish completed audit reports, arguing that Law 10-07 does not legally require the Contraloría to make its findings public.
Espinosa Pérez maintains that a strict reading of the law supports withholding the audits. Critics argue that reading ignores Law 200-04, the Dominican Republic's freedom of information statute, which recognizes citizens' right to access documents produced by public bodies.
What the laws say
Law 10-07 governs the internal control of the Dominican public administration and the operations of the Contraloría, the state body responsible for auditing how public funds are spent. Law 200-04 is the country's law on free access to public information, and it establishes that residents can request records held by government institutions.
Critics of the comptroller's position say audits are produced with public resources to determine how other public resources were managed, and therefore belong to the public rather than to the comptroller, the president or the institution being audited.
A reversal from 2023
The Contraloría itself published audits in 2023, and at the time described the practice as honoring the constitution, Law 200-04 and Law 10-07. Critics say the same legal framework has not changed, only the agency's willingness to apply it.
There is acknowledgment that some reports, or parts of them, could be temporarily withheld if disclosure would compromise an open investigation, personal data or a legal strategy. But critics argue any such exception must be justified case by case, not used as a blanket cover for withholding anything the agency finds inconvenient.
A broader transparency promise
The Dominican government has pledged to make transparency a defining feature of its administration. Withholding completed audits is said to undermine that pledge and to fuel suspicions that publishing the reports could resolve. The central question raised is not whether Law 10-07 technically compels the Contraloría to post audits online, but why an administration that says it has nothing to hide would look for arguments not to show them.
