Details on the case of ICSSI, S.A., a company that was fast-tracked despite only having RD$50,000 in capital and was awarded a multi million-dollar contract to install equipment to monitor containers passing through Dominican ports during the government of President Hipolito Mejia are carried in acento.com.do and La Lupa magazine. Neither Miguel Cocco nor his successor Rafael Camilo at the head of the Customs Department authorized the company to operate. The present director of Customs would not comment on the case. The publications write that the company would have charged exorbitant rates for customs control services. The contract was signed by then Minister of the Armed Forces Jose Miguel Soto Jimenez in representation of the Dominican government and was approved by Congress in 2003.
The government is now subject to an international legal case at the International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes with the owners of the contract claiming the right to compensation for profits they would have received over the 20-year term of the contract.
A recent article in the Miami Herald focuses on how controversial Dr. Salomon Melgen two years ago, bought out the company that had signed the contract. Melgen is tied to senator Bob Menendez scandal. The newspaper reports:
“Menendez, who has received healthy campaign contributions from the doctor, in a July Senate hearing peppered Obama officials about what they were doing to help US business interests in the Dominican Republic. He specifically mentioned the contract for X-ray equipment at the ports.”
The Miami Herald reports: “That contract has raised controversy due to its cost o an estimated $500 million to $1 billion over 20 years. And the machines have not been installed.”
Read the Miami Herald story mention of the contract at http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/02/04/3216715/dominican-lawyer-defends-melgen.html#storylink=cpy
And more about the case in Spanish at www.acento.com.do/index.php/news/45164/56/Los-rayos-X-otro-contrato-que-expone-a-RD-a-demandas-internacionales.html