The Chairman of the Senate Justice Committee, Milton Ray Guevara (PRD-Saman?), told reporters yesterday that he is certain that the five anti-corruption measures sent to the Senate last week by President Fern?ndez will be approved by the upper chamber of Congress. The vocal support of the chairman of the relevant committee and a leading spokesman for the party controlling the Senate practically ensures passage of the President’s package. The package submitted last Thursday by President Fern?ndez includes: (1) an Ethics Code for Public Servants, which draws heavily upon the principles of the 1994 Inter-American Anti-Corruption Convention agreed under the auspices of the Organization of American States (OAS) [although the DR signed the Convention in March 1996, it has yet to ratify it]; (2) a draft law on money laundering; (3) a draft law against "transnational" bribery; (4) changes in the Legal Declaration of Goods public servants must make to better reveal conflicts of interest; (5) modifications in the Penal Code to toughen sanctions against "classic manifestations of corruption." Senator Ray Guevara said that the Senate will also approve his bill to prohibit the Government from slicing up public works projects into small chunks in order to avoid putting them up to open bidding, since this "is a major source of corruption in the Dominican Republic." The bill, approved by the Senate in the previous session but not acted upon by the Chamber of Deputies, would require any project whose total value is over RD$3 million must be put up for open public bidding. Public works valued between RD$2-3 million would be decided by a drawing organized by the College of Engineers, Architects and Surveyors.
