Corrupt officials' nice little earner exposed

Who was the man with the suitcase?
When being interrogated by the Specialized Prosecution Service for Administrative Corruption (PEPCA), Jose Rafael Alejo Perez revealed that although the person in charge of the money for payment to contractors was the technical director of the Office of Supervising Engineers for State Works (OISOE), Jose Florencio, the actual "man with the suitcase" was Alejandro de los Santos, who would tell him how much to give each engineer.
De Los Santos was in charge of school construction projects within OISOE and would sometimes go to the actual schools with the cash, or hand it over in OISOE head office, both in cash and by check.
Alejo Perez revealed that once they arrived in a certain province, de los Santos would meet with Florencio and if he had the money then they would hand it over or call the person who had lent the money and give it to them.
He said that he was not present at these meetings as he was not high enough within the organization, but that he had got to know de los Santos at the Ministry of Education when Melanio Paredes was in charge.
On the question of the loans made to the engineers, he said that there was a receipt and when the work was finished, the engineer would go with them and sign another paper for the sum that had been handed over.
He confirmed that he knew architect David Rodriguez, who committed suicide, and said that Rodriguez had come to the office with Yoel Soriano Fabian to ask for help to finish the job as some businesses were allegedly charging high prices. He was desperate to finish as the school and was receiving between RD$40,000 and RD$50,000 a month from De los Santos.
A suicide note left by architect Rodriguez has opened a new can of worms at the OISOE with suggestions of complicity at all levels.

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More OISOE extortion cases exposed
The Special Prosecutor for the Prosecution of Administrative Corruption (PEPCA) has uncovered a new case of extortion involving Alejandro Isidoro Santos and Julio Rafael Perez Alejo, the defendants in the corruption case in the Supervising Office of State Projects (OISOE), as reported in Listin Diario.
This time the victim was an engineer, Dario George Sarita, who won the raffle to build a public school in Nagua. De los Santos and Perez Alejo are under investigation after the suicide in September of architect David Rodriguez Garcia, who left a handwritten note claiming that he had been a victim of extortion by both men.
In the 31-page accusation drafted by the administrative corruption unit, already submitted to the National District Permanent Attention Services Judicial Office, PEPCA states that it has established that Alejandro Delos Santos and Julio Rafael Perez Alejo not only acted against architect Garcia but also were constantly threatening engineer Dario George Sarita, who was awarded the construction of the Dr. Jose Francisco Pena Gomez School in Nagua in the northeastern province of Maria Trinidad Sanchez in 2013. The contract was for RD$20 million. According to PEPCA, De los Santos constantly threatened to take away the project from engineer George Sarita.
De los Santos and Perez Garcia together with others are currently in pre-trial detention and the Palace of Justice in Ciudad Nueva.
In a related article in El Nacional, Pedro Castro reported that when questioned by prosecutors, lawyer Julio Rafael Perez Alejo stated that the OISOE technical director had provided the money for the loans to the engineers who were building schools for the government. Apparently Perez Alejo, De los Santos' personal assistant, was in charge of the documentation and invoices that supported the loans.
In his statements to the deputy prosecutors from PEPCA he said that the money that was loaned had come from the former technical director, Jose Florencio, who left OISOE when Francisco Pagan Rodriguez replaced Miguel Pimentel Kareh as director.
El Dia reports that dozens of engineers are in the same situation as David Rodriguez with back logged payments, the engineer who apparently committed suicide for financial reasons and whose suicide note blaming two men has opened a can of worms at OISOE.

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Third person arrested in new OISOE scandal
A third person was arrested yesterday, Wednesday 30 September 2015 after alleged irregularities under investigation at the Office of Supervisory Works of the State (OISOE) following the alleged suicide of architect David Rodriguez, a contractor of a public school renovation in Monte Plata province.
Laura Guerrero Pelletier, head of the Specialized Prosecutors Office for Prosecution of Administrative Corruption (PEPA) ordered the arrest of lawyer Rafael Perez Alejo, personal assistant to engineer Alejandro de los Santos, who was arrested on Tuesday, 29 September 2015. The press has not been able to determine his role at the OISOE.
Engineer Yoel Soriano Fabian, a former OISOE employee who worked on coordinating the construction of schools in Monte Plata, has also been arrested in connection with this case.
The OISOE has been affected by a series of scandals, especially during the PLD administrations. The entity, which reports directly to the Presidency, is considered a parallel Ministry of Public Works but with less transparency. Francisco Pagan replaced engineer Hector Pimentel Kareh as head of the OISOE after a major financial scandal. Diario Libre reports that Pagan held a one-hour meeting with President Medina at the Presidential Palace yesterday, Wednesday 30 September 2015, but after leaving he told the press that he does not agree with the calls to close the office.
In a new development, architect Rodriguez's relatives have told journalists from Listin Diario that they doubt that he committed suicide. It was not like his structured way of living his life, they told the newspaper, adding that he had two cell phones but one is missing, and that a folder where he kept lots of documents is now empty.

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Another death in OISOE case
Julio Cesar Caceres Urena, an agricultural engineer who has been questioned in connection with the extortion case involving the Office of Supervising Engineers of State Works (OISOE) has told prosecutors that in August 2015 another man died after a meeting with the former head of the Department of School Buildings, Alejandro Isidro de los Santos Serrano, currently under investigation in connection with the recent suicide of architect David Rodriguez Garcia.
Caceres Urena only identified the deceased by the name of Wilson, who is said to have died after a meeting with De los Santos and his personal assistant, lawyer Julio Rafael Perez Alejo.
During the interrogation Caceres Urena said that he had been hired by De los Santos, who gave him the landscaping budget and they had an agreement but he had never signed a contract. He said that most of his wages were paid in cash and deposited into his account, and of his wages 60% were his, and De los Santos took the other 40% as well as his benefits and expenses.
He also revealed that De los Santos would go to the sites and was under pressure to finish the schools so he would offer money immediately saying they could pay him back later when the budget arrived to pay for the work, but he was the one who managed the budget.
http://listindiario.com/la-republica/2015/10/05/390843/revelan-que-hay-otro-muerto-en-caso-oisoe
http://elnacional.com.do/aun-no-interrogan-exjefe-oisoe-tras-el-escandalo/

OISOE staff sent to jail
National District judge Jose Alejandro Vargas has sent two engineers from the Office of Supervisory Engineers of State Works (OISOE) and one lawyer to eight months in pre-trial detention at La Victoria jail. Alejandro de los Santos Serrano, Joel Soriano Fabian and lawyer Jose Rafael Alejo Perez are accused of corruption, which allegedly led to the suicide of architect David Rodriguez Garcia. The family of Rodriguez Garcia yesterday presented charges against former director of the OISOE, Miguel Pimentel Kareh for his being aware of the corrupt practices at the agency. The widow of Rodriguez says there are more persons involved that have not been mentioned in the investigation of the case. She said the three that have been sent to jail are not the principals.
The judge based his decision on the public prosecutors from the Specialized Unit for the Persecution of Administrative Corruption's (Pepca) request for one year's remand in jail.
At the same time, the judge decided to declare the case complex as the accused are facing charges of blackmail, extortion, fraud and criminal association.
http://www.listindiario.com/la-repu...s-y-un-abogado-implicados-en-caso-de-la-oisoe
http://www.diariolibre.com/noticias...res-acusados-de-corrupcion-en-oisoe-AJ1478398
http://acento.com.do/2015/actualida...-contra-miguel-pimentel-kareh-por-corrupcion/

OISOE Technical Director has been in trouble before
The former technical director of the Office of Supervising Engineers of State Works (OISOE) Jose Miguel Florencio Estevez, who has been named as the man who lent money to engineers to build schools, was the subject of another complaint in October 2014 by a group of engineers from San Juan de la Maguana who accused him of hiding the files that instructed the Treasury to pay them RD$72 million.
According to OISOE employment records, Florencio Estevez was paid a monthly salary of RD$62,250. According to their website he worked as part of the team of former OISOE director Miguel Pimentel Kareh and left when the latter was dismissed in August 2015.
On Monday, 5 October 2015, while being questioned about the suicide of architect David Rodriguez, Jose Rafael Alejo Perez named Florencio Estevez as the person who arranged the money to lend to the engineers, and his underling, Alejandro De los Santos as the person who actually handed over the cash.
Florencio Estevez made news headlines last year when a group of 15 engineers from San Juan de la Maguana accused him of hiding the files for the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo (UASD) Regional Center construction project that was begun in 2005 and inaugurated in 2010. The engineers claimed that OISOE owed them RD$72 million for the work.
The complaint hit the headlines when Z101 radio station discussed the case during "The Government in the Afternoon" show, and a representative of the engineers, Victor Payano, said that Florencio had the files on the case. They said that President Danilo Medina had instructed the Treasury to pay the debt. Payano said that the engineers were in severe financial straits because they could not pay their suppliers, who were considering legal action.
Florencio was warned that he would undergo a disciplinary process by the Dominican College of Engineers, Architects and Surveyors (CODIA) for poor business practices and lack of ethics for having hidden the files on the case. At the time, investigative journalist Nuria Piera even aired the maneuvers by Florencio on her television program saying that he had given about RD$500 million worth of work to at least four of his friends and received monthly payments in return for the favors.
http://www.listindiario.com/la-repu...a-sido-denunciado-hace-un-ano-en-octubre-2014

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OISOE, Education and Public Works deep in debt
The president of the Dominican College of Engineers, Architects and Surveyors (Codia) Francisco Mosquea, reported on Wednesday, 7 October 2015 having received 49 case files revealing debts that the State owes to its members. The case files were delivered so that the OISOE and the ministries of Education and Public Works may honor their obligations for the construction of schools, childcare centers and hospitals.
A Codia commission is analyzing the lack of payment for work completed for the construction of extended day schools that falls under the OISOE and the ministries of Education and Public Works.
Mosquea said that Codia had created the commission in order to investigate the serious delays in payment to the engineers and architects. He added that in some cases the state owes money for work dating back to 1998.
Mosquea also revealed knowledge of situations where engineers and other contractors were threatened by OISOE, saying that in these cases they would be taking the case files directly to the Ministry of Education.
http://hoy.com.do/codia-pide-que-se-investigue-bien-caso-de-la-oisoe/

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