Maximo Castillo, president of the Government Accounting Office (Camara de Cuentas) also accuses the District Attorney of selectiveness in the fight against government corruption. District Attorney Jose Manuel Hernandez Peguero has the same claim against Castillo.
Castillo said that the prosecutors have not acted on the cases of suspected irregularities in the construction of the La Isabela airport, the municipal buildings in La Romana and the Fundacion para el Desarrollo de la Juventud Rural, or in the case regarding the Ede-Este, where he told El Nacional newspaper that the state had been defrauded to the tune of over RD$4 billion. These cases occurred during the Fernandez administration.
He also said that in the audit carried out on the governmental transport plan, Plan Renove some vital documents were removed. El Caribe reports that their sources are attributing this to transport union director Juan Hubieres, and documents that incriminate him were removed from the case because he allegedly provided the authorities with information about the others involved.
Maximo Castillo has been active in an investigation into the furnishing and equipping of the new Supreme Court of Justice building during the first six months of the Fernandez administration, for which receipts for RD$106 million reportedly have been paid. Supreme Court of Justice Jorge Subero Isa said that those responsible for the decoration had yet to present an inventory of what was installed, but news reports have focused on the luxurious furnishing the government purchased for the Supreme Court.
Furthermore, Castillo announced he would be auditing the construction, decoration and furnishing of the UASD library and would document the case and send it to state prosecutors. As reported in the Listin Diario, the Fernandez government chose to replace ceramics with marble, change and reinforce the electrical system, and widened the steps leading to the entrance, among other works. Sanchesska Nanita, in charge of the refurbishment estimated the works at the UASD library at RD$60 million. Listin Diario also reports that the interior fittings would have cost around US$16 million.
He complained that there is no will within the government to prosecute past, present or future corruption. “Corruption has become routine, resulting in the state losing millions of pesos and yet there is never a culprit,” he said.
He said that district attorney Jose Manuel Hernandez’s complaints seek to discredit the report that the organization is due to present on the furnishing of the Supreme Court of Justice, where he says there have been many irregularities. “The country will be shaken when it discovers what happened there,” he said.
Newspapers reports are claiming that the decoration and furnishings were overvalued by as much as RD$500 million, according to El Nacional. Minister of Public Works Freddy Perez has impeded access to his offices of the deputy minister that oversaw the remodeling project.
On Monday, President Leonel Fernandez announced that government purchases and contracting would be subject to tenders. He said he would issue a decree to instate mechanisms aimed at controlling state purchases and contracting and make these more transparent. These are contemplated in a bill sent to Congress that has not yet been approved.