In the alphabet soup of commissions, committees and state-sponsored organizations, DEPRECO is assigned the task of preventing corruption. RENOVE was the program charged, under the Mejia administration, with renovating the public transportation fleet. The leading members of the latter, as well as businessmen involved in the purchase of many of the vehicles were charged with fraudulent handling to the tune of over RD$1.0 billion. Yesterday’s papers reported that the magistrate had convicted 10 of the 14 accused, and administered jail sentences and fines. Now, according to Diario Libre, DEPRECO has announced that it will study the case files and appeal against the verdicts because there are “some aspects that the Justice Department did not share.” Two of the convicted men, Fabio Ruiz and Antonio Marte will also be appealing. Other papers comment on the verdicts, and Listin Diario says that a mere 2% of the fraud money will be recovered by the fines levied by the magistrate. Lawyer Juarez Castillo, as reported in the Listin Diario, said that the government prosecutors protected the real heads of the scam against the government for RD$1.8 billion. He said with the judgement, the state prosecutors have allowed impunity.