The Department for the Prevention of Administrative Corruption (DEPRECO) has received nearly 120 complaints, corruption files and accusatory reports that involve more than 350 people, including three ministers from different ministries during the last administration and several police officers. Nonetheless, only seven of these cases have been investigated and sent to the courts, and of these, four were dismissed for “lack of evidence”, or for “procedural errors.” This is how the government’s anti-corruption policy stands up to scrutiny. Over the last ten years only two cases have been successfully prosecuted: the case against the infamous deputy from La Vega, Radhames Ramos Garcia for human trafficking, and the Plan Renove case, which involved over-valued vehicles. According to a new series in Listin Diario, history seems to be repeating itself as the PLD authorities found 270 files that were drawn up during the previous administration, and over half of them were turned down by prosecutors. One hundred and thirty are still open but nobody is actively investigating them and only ten have been sent to the courts. None of these cases have gone to the courts for full, in-depth, investigations and, of course, no one has been convicted. Between 1985 and 2000, there were over 300 cases of corruption reported but only six were sent to court and only one conviction, that of former President Salvador Jorge Blanco and his chief of the Armed Forces, Manuel Antonio Cuervo Gomez. A search in www.google.com turns up 154,000 pages of information relating to administrative corruption in the DR but there is just one conviction since the inception of the new Penal Code. The list of cases pending includes the case against Jose Michelen, a former director of the government’s price control entity, INESPRE. The case was filed in 1986. Another case is the scandal in Customs that broke out in 1994 when Anicia Ricci was accused by her own PRSC party of corruption in the handling of the Customs office. Yet more cases include fraud at the National Lottery where Frederich Marzouke was accused of a RD$90 million crime that included the now infamous Pepe Goico; the case involving Bahia de las Aguilas that was brought by the Dominican Agrarian Institute; then there is yet another case involving illegal Chinese immigrants that is waiting to be fully prosecuted.