The Cabarete Development Association (ADECA) is asking the Puerto Plata courts to expedite the hearing of the case presented by Attorney General Francisco Dominguez Brito against the Municipal Director of Cabarete, Gabriel Antonio Mora Ramirez (Canoa) and former municipal director Eddy Ramon Morfe de la Cruz, accused of misuse of public funds from 2004-2010.
The private sector has a long-standing case against the two politicians.
Adeca is asking the judiciary to order the fulfillment of the law that establishes that a municipal official must be suspended when a court case where the accused could be sent to jail is being heard. The preliminary case is set for today, Tuesday, 21 May at the instruction court.
Adeca says the community of Cabarete is seeking the support of the judiciary and the city government of Sosua, under which is the Cabarete district, to clean up the operation of the city administration and promote the correct use of its funds.
The Attorney General is prosecuting based on audits by the Chamber of Accounts, the Department for Prosecution of Administrative Corruption (DPCA), and other audits by the National Institute of Forensic Sciences (Inacif) and a complaint documented by Adeca in October 2012 for a RD$102 million scam from 2004-2010.
Mora was elected district director for Cabarete in 2010. Over the years he has been accused of several violations of environmental law, shooting at a taxi driver and has been processed for violation of the freedom of information law. Morfe was municipal director from 2008-2010. Canoa was also in the post from 2004-2005.
Adeca president Michel Gay Crosier wants the judicial process to be speeded up put an end to the scandalous wasting of public funds now over a period of 10 years. He called on the leading members of the PLD, PRD and PRSC parties, especially current Foreign Relations Minister Carlos Morales Troncoso (PRSC) to dismantle the political protection for Canoa that exists in the province.