The National Housing Institute (INVI) was rocked yesterday by a scandal that involves its own staffers, as well as an Armed Forces captain. According to Felipe Abreu Roedan, the director of the INVI, a group of people working in the legal office of the institute allegedly falsified documents that permitted them to sell public housing to unsuspecting individuals. Abreu Roedan also said his people were scrutinizing an expenditure of RD$1.1 billion during the last six months of the previous administration. Abreu Roedan told reporters from the Listin Diario that “there was a network within the legal office that falsified everything from the approvals for the apartment, contracts, and the pay receipts giving authorization to take over the apartment.” The scam was discovered when the new apartment owners went to the INVI to open their payment accounts and their names could not be found in the system. The defrauders operated primarily in the Los Alcarrizos area where 53 apartments were found to be illegally occupied. These people are now being submitted to the process of eviction. One lawyer is under investigation, accused of selling 40 apartments. Also under indictment is a captain of the Armed Forced accused of collecting between RD$5,000 and RD$6,000 for the right to occupy the apartments. Dwellings in Sabana Grande de Boya, San Luis, El Tamarindo, La Virgin, and Invivienda Santo Domingo are part of the scandal. The deals were done as follows: The sale of the apartment was not registered in the internal archives. The certificates to authorize the property were falsified and contracts bearing false seals, signatures and stamps were produced. The receipts of payment were also false. When the property buyer handed over the RD$52,000 needed as a down payment, the receiver stepped out of the office in order to “pay the cashier,” and then return with a phony receipt. The individuals then went home thinking they had paid for their new apartment and that the certificates that authorized them to take possession were legal, as were the certifications that said they had fulfilled all the requisites for ownership of the property.
The INVI is also investigating what designation was given to RD$1.1 billion that was spent in the last eight months of the PRD administration. Abreu Roedan said that he also wants to know where the RD$50-million loan taken out by INVI from the Banco de Reservas was spent. This loan was paid by letters of credit from three suppliers of wood and tin sheeting for roofs. The INVI, through a program of prefabrication, built nearly 2,700 houses of the 5,000 that were supposed to be built. Abreu says he does not know, however, where these houses are located.