The major news story today is the jailing of so many of the PRD’s top brass, as well as a former Armed Forces minister, for their part in the Plan Renove fiasco. El Caribe dedicates three pages to the story, and all the major papers carry headlines alluding to the arrests. An audit carried out by the Accounting Office had turned up a series of highly irregular activities in the handling of the vehicles imported under the Plan Renove, a scheme that was ostensibly designed to renew the public transportation fleet in Santo Domingo and most of the rest of the country by waiving import taxes on vehicles and offering attractive financing in pesos. The audit showed, however, that the vehicles were often distributed to family members and friends of Plan Renove’s board of directors, which oversaw a US$158-million line of credit. According to the report, Milciades Amaro Guzman, a member of the Renove board and of the Terrabus Transport Federation, received 49 buses. Antonio Marte Familia, from Aetra Bus, accepted 32 buses. Diogenes de la Cruz Castillo of Fenatrado received six trucks, and so it continues, with some of the vehicles never even paid for. The list of people who received vehicles from cars to buses and trucks included Juan Hubieres, Freddy William Mendez and Alfredo “Cambita” Paulinario. The audit also uncovered a recommendation from Renove board member Amadeo Lorenzo that bestowed vehicles to 26 people with absolutely no relation to the various transportation companies or syndicates. The audit furthermore detected a shortfall in payments from the different syndicates, such as Fenetrado, Conatra and the Union of Bus Owners.
Even during Mejia’s administration there was a series of audits that pointed to impropriety. One such review, conducted by the former controller general, Federico Lalane Jose, in January of 2004 and reported in DR1 News, unearthed a slew of weaknesses within Plan Renove’s accounting.
The PRD called a meeting last night at the home of former Tourism Minister Rafael Subervi to review the legal process against the former Mejia government officers. In attendance were former President Hipolito Mejia, Rafael Subervi, former President Salvador Jorge Blanco, former Vice-President Milagros Ortiz Bosch, former Culture Minister Tony Raful, former Agriculture Minister Eligio Jaquez, Senator Hernani Salazar, Senate leader Andres Bautista, Chamber of Deputies head Alfredo Pacheco and former director of Customs Vicente Sanchez Baret. While Sanchez Baret said that a board of PRD lawyers would defend the PRD men accused in connection with Plan Renove, he nevertheless stated that he is not against letting justice take its course nor the application of the law.
Former President Hipolito Mejia said it was all “part of the show.”
Among the prominent figures who were led off to jail was Ramon Emilio Jimenez, the former minister of the Armed Forces, who was sent to the military prison. Also in custody is Diogenes Castillo, the former director of OMSA (Metropolitan Bus Service Authority), who had been accused of irregularities by syndicate leader Juan Hubieres in 2001. Pedro Franco Badia, a leading figure of the PRD, was the head of Plan Renove and is accused of distributing 312 vehicles without the proper authority. The list is long and includes Johnny Morales, one of Mejia’s closest collaborators and the partner of Sam Goodson in Hyundai American Corporation, the main supplier of vehicles for the plan. For a full list of names, please see: http://www.hoy.com.do/app/article.aspx?id=29166