The Director of the Presidential Office for Information Technology and Communications (OPTIC), Domingo Tavarez, has moved center stage in the scandal involving the resignation of Gustavo Montalvo from the National Ethics Commission, the Executive Branch Modernization Program (Pro-Reforma) and as liaison at the Technical Secretariat of the Presidency with the National Competitiveness Council. Questions were raised about Tavarez after Clave Digital published the information that this official had not heeded the requests of the National Ethics Commission, which is headed by respectable lawyer and professor Jose Joaquin Bido Medina, and which had Montalvo as one of its members, both prominent figures within the PLD. However, Tavarez went even further. He paid no attention to the Technical Secretary of the Presidency, Juan Temistocles Montas, who, acting upon warnings of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) about irregularities detected in the project called “Citizen’s Services Center Portal of the Dominican Government”, sent him a letter stating that the government was not willing to invest in the modality proposed by the director of OPTIC. Tavarez’s insubordination towards Montas – who is his immediate superior – was reported to President Fernandez, pointing out that the official only followed orders directly from the President. Montas stated that Tavarez, as director of OPTIC, had prepared a US$13 million budget for the portal project, which according to the Executive Branch Modernization Program (Pro-Reforma) only cost US$2 million. Clave Digital comments that it is scandalous that the Dominican Government’s electronic portal which was to be conceived by OPTIC is meant to make the actions of all state institutions more transparent as a way of reducing and fighting corruption in public administration, and it has been precisely this project that has generated strong questioning from the Ethics Commission, the IDB and the Technical Secretariat of the Presidency. Clave digital has posted facsimile copies of original letters from Montas to Tavarez, Montas to the President, the IDB to Montas and the Ethics Commission to Tavarez at http://clavedigital.com/Portada/Articulo.asp?Id_Articulo=6062
Meanwhile, Listin Diario reports that PLD Secretary General, Reinaldo Parez Perez, is asking for an investigation into the reasons for Gustavo Montalvo’s resignation. Pared Perez highlighted Montalvo’s reputation, saying he is a citizen with a clean background, within the PLD as well as in his private and professional life.
Ramon Tejada Holguin writes an opinion article in El Caribe stating that if every time you enter the government’s website you remember that “the Coordinator of the Technical Unit of the National Ethics Commission, Gustavo Montalvo, resigned because he believes the tender to create an electronic government with more transparency was not transparent itself, then this electronic government is rather opaque, unnecessary and destined for failure.” He maintains that nobody has been able to explain what happened during the call for the National and International Public Tender OPTIC/LC-001-2005, no matter how many questions are asked by the National Ethics Commission, or how loudly international institutions and civil society organizations complain. In other words, he adds, can you imagine that what is supposed to aid transparency is the main proof of opaqueness and suspicion?