The Superior Administrative Tribunal (TSA) said that it could not decide by means of an appeal whether to order the rehabilitation or not of the Odebrecht company as a state provider. The First Chamber of the TSA said that the appeal filed by Odebrecht against Resolution 08 -2017 by the Public Contracts Agency that had requested Odebrecht at least be provisionally allowed to supply the government again. The suspension was put in place after Odebrecht admitted to having paid US$92 million in bribes to be favored with several public works projects. The suspension, nevertheless, did not affect Odebrecht construction works at the Punta Catalina power plant, the largest Odebrecht contract in the country.
The TSA is the government agency that reviews the transparency and integrity of government procedures. The TSA decided unanimously that the way for Odebrecht to reclaim its rights as a supplier is through administrative litigation, not an appeal, thereby accepting the decision and conditions established by the Procurement Agency, the Ministry of Hacienda, the Dominican state and the Attorney General. The Brazilian company had argued that their rights were being violated because they have already admitted to the illicit deeds and had reached an agreement with the Justice Department in which they committed to and fulfilled a payment of double the amount of the bribes.
The Public Procurement Agency told the judges that the agreement reached cannot constitute in any manner a conclusive act, since the criminal process has been suspended until the conditions established in the agreement are completely complied with. The Public Procurement Agency has argued in addition that the Attorney General has not sent them any communications regarding the judicial status of this case.
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Diario Libre
15 October 2018
