President Leonel Fernández participated in the Third Conference on the Prevention of Corruption. During the conference, President Fernandez defended the co-existence of the government being able to choose contractors of works ("grado a grado"), and the holding public tenders to choose other contractors. Fernández said that there are many projects that need to be carried out in the short term and the holding of tenders may delay their execution. Furthermore, he said that if all projects had to go to a public contest, then only a small group of contractors would benefit. He explained that only those with the most resources and experience would win the tenders. Nevertheless, he criticized Congress for not passing a bill sent by the Executive Branch that would establish that 70% of all government works require tenders, while 30% be directly assigned by the government. The Executive Branch also submitted a bill that would regulate the purchasing of goods and services by the state, that has met with congressional indifference. Fernández, in an improvised speech, said that he did not believe there was systematic corruption in the DR. He said there is corruption on an individual basis, but denied the state is affected by an organized system of corruption. Also participating in the conference, PRD presidential candidate Hipólito Mejía said that the allotting of contracts by the so-called "grado a grado" method is a flagellum that has become part of Dominican culture. He said this has resulted in hefty losses to society due to inefficiency, overvaluations, opportunity cost and construction of non-priority infrastructures. He feels that political will is needed to end corruption. "The success of being able to confront corruption also depends on the existence of institutional mechanisms that provide the judicial and administrative framework to prevent and penalize these damaging acts," he said. So far, denouncing these in the press is the only penalty to corruption in the DR. While they are known, corrupt government officers have been protected by politicians who have needed alliances to win elections. The conference, which took place at the auditorium of the Central Bank, was sponsored by the Procuraduría General de la República (attorney general’s office), the Voluntariado Nacional para la Prevención de la Corrupción and the Contraloría General de la República.
