The government recently set a precedent by voiding the sale of state property in the Los Tres Brazos area of eastern Santo Domingo carried out by a private company that had received a concession from CORDE, the government holder of the property. A review carried out by a government commission established the transaction was plagued by irregularities and should be voided. As a result, President Medina ordered the shutdown of CORDE and CREP, the two entities involved with the privatization of state property.
Now the Dominican Alliance Against Corruption (ADOCCO) has requested that President Danilo Medina immediate revoke CEA property sales at ridiculously low prices over the past 20 years. He said that these sales have only served to allow politicians to strengthen their position in government. These sales of state property alledgedly have benefitted select businessmen and high ranking military and police officers, giving these buyers undue privileges at the detriment of the Dominican state and general population who had sought to purchase CEA land. The property sale began after the privatization of state sugar mills.
Adocco said after the privatization, the State Sugar Council began to carry out the property sales in order to maintain a payroll of some 4,000 employees who allegedly have no specific duties within the Council.
In September 2017, President Danilo Medina banned the sale of CEA property and created an assessment commission coordinated by minister sans portfolio, Bautista Rojas Gomez. However, throughout the period of time, the CEA real estate unit has continued to negotiate sales of CEA property. As reported in Diario Libre, in some cases the same property has been sold to three different buyers, causing judicial problems and confrontations, some ending in violence.
Julio César De la Rosa Tiburcio, president of ADOCCO, believes there is still time to correct irregularities in the program so that the extensive properties of the 12 sugar mills that have not yet been liquidated can be assessed and made available for purchase at fair market prices.
