Attorney General Jean-Alain Rodríguez says that the country has received US$30 million part of the deal signed with the Brazilian construction company Odebrecht that has admitted to making US$92 million in bribes to obtain contract work in the Dominican Republic. He also announced that as part of the deal, his office would receive details of the names of those involved in the Dominican bribes. However, this information is confidential as established by the Dominican Penal Procedures Code.
Rodríguez said that the payment is an advance of a commitment by Odebrecht to pay the country US$184 million, an amount double of the admitted bribe, in compliance with Dominican Law 448-06 on Bribes in Commerce and Investment.
Rodríguez said the remainder would be paid over an eight-year period, ending in 2025. He said the first payment was received with the signing of the agreement on Wednesday, 1 February 2017. The agreement says that the Dominican Republic will have preference over payment of other agreements reached with other countries, with the exception of those signed with the United States, Brazil and Switzerland. The other terms of the agreement have not been made public.
Rodríguez said the eight-year term is a much better deal than the 20 year payments of penalties that have been negotiated with Brazil, Colombia, Panama and Peru.
He said the payment does not stop investigations into the case being carried out by the Attorney General Office. Rodríguez said the agreement includes a cooperation clause for the local investigations. He said this includes the lists where persons, works and financial structures used for the mobilization of the bribes is identified.
Rodríguez said the information would be supplied once it is released from a confidentiality agreement signed by Odebrecht with the Brazilian authorities with the approval of US authorities. Nevertheless, Rodríguez said the content of the agreement is protected by a confidentiality clause established in Art. 290 of the Dominican Penal Procedures Code.
Local press has criticized that the Dominican Republic is the only Latin American country to not yet announce the names of local persons involved in the bribery scandal, nor have officials sought the involvement of independent investigators, such as the United Nations to look into the scandal.
Read more in Spanish:
El Caribe
El Nuevo Diario
3 February 2017
