Who was the man with the suitcase?

When being interrogated by the Specialized Prosecution Service for Administrative Corruption (PEPCA), Jose Rafael Alejo Perez revealed that although the person in charge of the money for payment to contractors was the technical director of the Office of Supervising Engineers for State Works (OISOE), Jose Florencio, the actual “man with the suitcase” was Alejandro de los Santos, who would tell him how much to give each engineer.

De Los Santos was in charge of school construction projects within OISOE and would sometimes go to the actual schools with the cash, or hand it over in OISOE head office, both in cash and by check.

Alejo Perez revealed that once they arrived in a certain province, de los Santos would meet with Florencio and if he had the money then they would hand it over or call the person who had lent the money and give it to them.

He said that he was not present at these meetings as he was not high enough within the organization, but that he had got to know de los Santos at the Ministry of Education when Melanio Paredes was in charge.

On the question of the loans made to the engineers, he said that there was a receipt and when the work was finished, the engineer would go with them and sign another paper for the sum that had been handed over.

He confirmed that he knew architect David Rodriguez, who committed suicide, and said that Rodriguez had come to the office with Yoel Soriano Fabian to ask for help to finish the job as some businesses were allegedly charging high prices. He was desperate to finish as the school and was receiving between RD$40,000 and RD$50,000 a month from De los Santos.

A suicide note left by architect Rodriguez has opened a new can of worms at the OISOE with suggestions of complicity at all levels.

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Who was the man with the suitcase?