The organizers of the successful Sunday, 22 January 2017, March Against Impunity visited the Attorney General’s Office and asked that an independent commission with the support of the United Nations investigate the Odebrecht bribes in the country. Natalia Mármol, spokesperson for the group, told the media that they would continue the peaceful demands until those that accepted bribes from Odebrecht were identified and prosecuted. She and others of the group visited the Attorney General’s Office wearing the green shirt that identified protestors on the Sunday march.
Fellow march organizer, Bartolomé Pujals expressed his skepticism that the interrogation of former government officers by Attorney General Jean-Alain Rodríguez and anti-administrative corruption prosecutor Laura Guerrero of PEPCA would lead to any charges being brought against officials who may have taken bribes. Pujals said the actions of the Attorney General follow the same pattern of previous administrative corruption cases handling. Virtually all cases of corruption heard by the judiciary have been blocked from moving forward for alleged lack of evidence or on a legal technicality.
“It is important to point out that neither the Attorney General of the Republic nor the President of the Republic, Danilo Medina, who is also compromised because bribes have been reported as having been paid during his management, can be a judge and part in designating commissions that at the end of the day will ensure impunity for any act of corruption that can be verified,”he said.
Also meeting at the Attorney General’s Office were members of Frente Amplio, deputy Fidel Santana and Dionisio Restituyo. They presented to the Attorney General a file with the overpricing of budgets for 24 projects carried out by Odebrecht in the Dominican Republic. Reportedly, the document does not include works carried out during the Medina administration, such as the coal-fired Punta Catalina power plant or the Duarte Corridor roadwork.
The Medina administration has reacted to the public uproar for action by issuing a temporary suspension of the license of Odebrecht to participate in tenders for public works. The Attorney General Office announced on Friday, 20 January 2017, it had reached an agreement with Odebrecht for the later to pay US$184 million in compensation to the Dominican state. This would be double the US$92 million the company admitted to having distributed in bribes to Dominican government officers. Meanwhile, abroad, media report that Odebrecht is having financial difficulties in making payments on similar commitments reached previously with other countries. In the Dominican Republic, only commercial representative of Odebrecht, Angel Rondón, has admitted to receiving the US$92 million bribe money but has said these were not bribes but rather fees for securing construction contracts.
There has been no information forthcoming on the destination of the US$184 million or the names of the person who in addition to Rondón would have received a portion of the US$92 million. Furthermore, there has been no information provided that explain the major differences in budgeted works and final cost of the projects nor an accounting of the real costs of these public works carried out by Odebrecht in the Dominican Republic.
Likewise, deputies of the Dominican Revolutionary Party (PRM), the leading opposition party, called for the Attorney General to request the immediate cooperation of the US Department of Justice and that of the Brazilian Federal Public Ministry in the case. Deputy Faride Raful of the PRM said that Rodríguez should be obligated to request the collaboration of the jurisdictions that have headed the investigations into the corruption case.
Attorney General Jean Alain Rodríguez has said that his office has concluded the first phase of the investigation and now the findings will be verified. On Thursday, 26 January, he questioned Frank Rodríguez, former director del Instituto Nacional de Recursos Hydraúlicos (INDRHI), and Rafael Suero Miliano, former administrator of the Empresa Generadora Hidroeléctrica Dominicana (EGEHID). These former government officials of the Leonel Fernández presidency had no comments to make to the press.
Rodríguez said that already 16 present and former government officers, legislators and former legislators and others with known ties to Odebrecht have been interrogated in the ongoing investigation.
Meanwhile, Diario Libre in an editorial on 27 January 2017 hints to the little expectations for Dominican government officers to be fined in the case of overpricing and bribes of Odebrecht. Executive editor Adriano Miguel Tejada writes: “Meanwhile, the serum that they have put to Odebrecht continues doing its work. What may explode will come from outside because here only locally made firecrackers of dubious origin will explode. “
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Diario Libre
27 January 2017
