Social media and investigative journalists have been on the case of millionaire purchases of supplies under the State of Emergency scheme due to the Covid-19 virus crisis. Investigative journalists Nuria Piera and Altagracia Salazar have been sharing details on these cases.
Investigative journalist Nuria Piera presents several cases of calls for orders lasting just hours and resulting in many times over price increases in the eventual purchases. Among the cases she points out how Tools Resources Toreen SRL is a big winner in bids to supply the Ministry of Public Health.
Journalist Altagracia Salazar also looks into the successful bid for RD$1.5 billion by a government supplier named Tools & Resources Enterprises Toreen, S. R. L. In her investigation, Salazar establishes that the company appears in Google searches associated with Ecocisa for the purchase of medical supplies. Ecocisa is the same company that has appeared associated with Grupo Asimra. Grupo Asimra has been in the news after it appeared as beneficiary of billions in asphalt work from the Ministry of Public Works under today ruling Dominican Liberation Party (PLD) presidential candidate Gonzalo Castillo.
Altagracia Salazar points out that the sales prices for medical supplies by Tools & Resources Enterprises Toreen, S. R. L is more than four times the market prices. She mentions in the case of surgical masks, these are 4.5 times more expensive. She compares the prices of the purchase by the supplier with the purchases made at the same time by the National Business Council. Furthermore, she asks why has the government had to purchase these supplies through a costly intermediary when through its relations with the People’s Republic of China it could buy directly from the suppliers.
Gustavo Montalvo, coordinator for the High Commission for the Prevention of Coronavirus said this week that only the government is authorized to channel the supplies.
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3 April 2020