Deputy Fidelio Despradel (Al País) called for the executive vice president of the Public Electricity Corporation (CDEEE), Rubén Jiménez Bichara, to reply to the statement by state prosecutors in the Odebrecht bribery scandal that bribes were paid for the contracting of the coal-fired Punta Catalina thermoelectric power central.
Punta Catalina is the most important public work carried out by Odebrecht in the Dominican Republic.
Despradel deposited a submission for legislators to question Ruben Jiménez Bichara on the tender and execution of the contract for the construction.
Despradel says almost every detail about the Punta Catalina project is questionable, including the fact that the project has twice the amount of land it needs and the doubts about the thoroughness of the environmental impact study of the coal-fired power plant.
Despradel called Jiménez Bichara responsible for promoting and signing the contract for US$2,010,744,751, he should respond to the claim made by the Public Ministry based on confessions by Odebrecht executives in Brazil.
He observed that from 2014 to present, the CDEEE has spent important sums of money for the implementation of the public work without detailing where the funds are coming from.
Despradel observed that only some of those who allegedly accepted bribes are under arrest and that there are many more government officials missing from the list, particularly those in the higher political hierarchy.
“The judicial case of Odebrecht is a result of the citizen mobilization challenging a system rife with impunity directed from the highest echelons of political power in the Dominican Republic,” he said. “We cannot permit that a case of this magnitude, the most costly public work of Odebrecht in the country, not be investigated, and much less when it is the same Public Ministry that ensures that in the contracting of the work, Angel Rondón paid out bribes to government officials,” said Despradel after submitting the request for questioning of Jimenez Bichara in the Chamber of Deputies.
Despradel says it is a duty of the National Congress to control government resources and the supervision of public policies.
Diario Libre reports that banks that have lent money for the Punta Catalina thermoelectric center construction have recently withheld transfers. Jiménez Bichara considered it reasonable that European banks have stopped the disbursement of resources for the power plant project until the results are known from the bribery judicial investigation. “I think it’s understandable and common sense,” he told Diario Libre reporters on 8 June 2017.
Up to February 2017, Jiménez Bichara had reported that the construction of the plant was up by 70%, with the goal then being for the power plant to be operational by the middle of 2018.
Read more in Spanish:
Acento
7 Dias
Diario Libre
9 June 2017
