The pressure continues for the Medina administration to put a stop to widespread corruption and impunity in government. For the past two weeks, TV journalist Nuria Piera has focused on the story of the general manager of the La Vega division of the central and northern region electricity distributor, EdeNorte, and how he has used his position to amass an extraordinary fortune.
Piera highlights that the EdeNorte’s La Vega manager Julio Cesar Correa Mena has accumulated known assets that he has not declared as part of his obligatory statement of wealth. Correa Mena was appointed director of La Vega region for EdeNorte in 2008. In 2012, he was named general manager of EdeNorte La Vega by President Danilo Medina.
The wealth accumulated of Correa Mena is so noteworthy that the investigative journalist dedicated a second program to highlight new findings of properties belonging to Correa Mena, after the first program prompted people to call in to tell about other properties belonging to the EdeNorte manager.
Nuria Piera concludes that an investigation of all wealth statements of government officers should be undertaken, given the extraordinary wealth that the EdeNorte manager has apparently accumulated. Piera speculates that others in the government may also have hidden assets.
For example, the wealth statement of Diandino Peña, the director of the Metro construction, did not include a number of properties known to be owned by him. Peña was subsequently removed from his position by President Medina. This was denounced in a TV investigative journalism report presented by Alicia Ortega also on Color Vision, Channel 9.
Piera claims that the Chamber of Accounts protects government officers when it does not provide information requested to the press or general public. She says that when providing information to the press, the Chamber of Accounts has blotched out details, making inquiries by journalists difficult. This apparent barrier gives the impression of complicity of the Chamber of Accounts to hide the assets of government officials.
See the video in Spanish:
Nuria
5 June 2017
