After several months of silence, the National Commission for Ethics and to Combat Corruption has decided that there were several irregularities in the public tender to construct the Citizens’ Portal. The tender had been held by the Presidential Office for Information Technology (OPTIC). The Ethics Commission recommends that a new public tender be announced. According to Diario Libre, the commission said that the “winning” bid was the least favorable and that there were serious conflicts of interest. The Ethics Commission, headed by former university president Jose Joaquin Bido Medina, concluded that the Dominican state was seriously prejudiced by the accepted offer. The commission pointed out that the winning company, Microsoft Dominicana, had previously served as an advisor to OPTIC. El Caribe says that the commission concluded that the facts given by whistle-blower Gustavo Montalvo were correct. Montalvo was the head of the technical committee that was looking to install the programs that would give citizens access to government databases. He resigned in protest against the results of the tender.