The National Procurement Office (DGCP) director Yokasta Guzman says her department will investigate the reported allocation of the reconstruction and lease of the Teatro Agua y Luz to a company owned by businessman and PRD president Miguel Vargas Maldonado. Vargas Maldonado recently gave the PLD the congressional support it needed in order to change the 2010 Constitution to allow President Danilo Medina to run for consecutive re-election. Vargas has been accused of trading business deals for political support.
As reported in El Caribe, Constructora Astur S.A. was awarded the control of the historic yet abandoned entertainment center in a tender under the Corporacion de Fomento a la Industria Hotelera y el Desarrollo Turistico (Corphotels), a division of the Ministry of Tourism.
Guzman said that her department did not supervise the contracting but would investigate after the American Chamber of Commerce Legal Committee chair, Mary Fernandez, made the point that the agreement was revealed a day after the PRD formalized the agreement with the PLD. She pointed out that the tender would have taken place in January 2015, but the outcome was only revealed this week,
Fernandez was speaking during the III Forum Country Objectives organized by AmChamDR and the Deloitte Consulting firm.
Administrative Minister of the Presidency Jose Ramon Peralta has denied the contracting by the government.
http://acento.com.do/2015/economia/8284199-contrataciones-publicas-investigara-adjudicacion-teatro-agua-y-luz-a-miguel-vargas/