El Caribe newspaper questions that four companies coincidentally located at the same Madrid address have benefited from 26 government contracts for goods and services to be purchased without tenders. For the purchases, the government is borrowing US$437.7 million from two Spanish banks, Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria and Deutsche Bank, Sociedad Anonima Española. The newspaper says that one of the four, Eurofinsa which was awarded five contracts for US$49.1 million is listed in Spain as having three employees. The newspaper also points out as a serious irregularity the fact that another of the companies, Riogersa, which has been awarded four contracts for US$106.9 million, does not list its address nor the name of its representatives on the contracts signed with the government. Riogersa signed its first contract, for US$18.2 million in military equipment a week after President Mejia took office. The other two companies are Suministros y Equipamientos Medicos Vitaria and CCL Peninsular. El Caribe says that in a press conference Temistocles Montas of the PLD identified Ramon Emilio Jimenez Collie, son of the former minister of the Armed Forces with the same name, as the person who secured the loans and represents these companies in the DR. Ramon Emilio Jimenez senior is in charge of the Plan Renove, a multi-million dollar Mejia government plan to modernize transportation with the purchase of buses, taxis and trucks.
