President Leonel Fernandez issued a Presidential Decree 621-05 last night which named the commission responsible for the re-negotiation of the existing contracts for electrical energy with Smith-Enron, Cogentrix and the members of the Madrid Accord. The commission is to work out agreements that guarantee the elimination of the “distortions that affect the contracts so much, such as the Madrid Accords, that gradually harm the interests of the Dominican state.” The commission will be headed by the vice-president of the CDEEE, Radhames Segura, and will include Ruben Montas, the head of the energy commission, Eduardo Rodriguez the President’s energy advisor and Alejandro Gomez, the administrator of Edesur, Eloy Manuel Suarez Mendoza from Edenorte. Staff from the Ministry of Finance as well as presidential financial, legal and economic advisors also form part of the commission. One of the first jobs the commission will face is the study of the Smith-Enron contract first signed in 1993 and modified several times, according to the decree. One of the more difficult contracts to renegotiate will be the deal with Cogentrix, signed and sealed “with the sovereign guarantee of the Dominican state.” Decree 621-05 calls the contract with Cogentrix “prejudicial to the best interests of the Dominican State.” The Madrid Accords were signed in Madrid, Spain in 2001, and involved the CDEEE, the Superintendent of Electricity, the different distributors and the generators from EG-Haina, Itabo and Seaboard.