TV journalist Luis Eduardo Lora (Huchi) called for state prosecutors to investigate the escalating of the construction budgets for eight Odebrecht projects in the Dominican Republic. Lora mentioned there was US$634 million in cost variations of the public works. He compared the initial budgets to the final costs.
Odebrecht admitted to a US court to having paid US$92 million in bribes to secure US$4.78 billion in contract work. Lora spoke on the El Día morning talk show televised on Telesistema, Channel 11.
Lora said that the authorities can not keep on looking the other way. He said overpricing has been verified at least in the case of eight Odebrecht public works. In some cases the overpricing is more than 173% of the initial budgeted cost.
On his El Dia program on Tuesday, 14 March 2017, Lora presented a graph showing the initial and completed cost for the Palomino and Pinalito dams, the Northwest, Samana and Salcedo aqueducts, the Constanza and Jarabacoa road and the Coral Highway.
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El Caribe
16 March 2017
