In a follow-up article on corruption, El Caribe newspaper tells of the Attorney General of the Dominican Republic reopening a case involving former president Leonel Fernandez. The case in question, which prompted audits to be carried out from August to December of 2000, involves a special account called ?Construction and Reconstruction of Priority Works?. The case file, which is in the El Caribe office, tells of accounting procedure violations across the board. At the heart of the matter is the purported RD$1.43 billion that was purportedly disbursed from 1 January to 15 August 2000.
Recently, Listin Diario political columnist Orlando Gil said that the revving up and dusting off of old corruption cases is the PRD?s response to the Hamilton-Hoy newspaper poll that indicated that 9 out of 10 Dominicans felt the government was doing very little to fight corruption. With the presidential elections set for May 2004, the PRD?s strongest potential candidate, President Hipolito Mejia, posted only a 39-percent popularity rate in the poll, compared to the 70-percent popularity rate of his expected opponent, former President Leonel Fernandez.