A shadow of doubt is cast over the new Chamber of Accounts member, Francisco Franco. Diario Libre reports that the lawyer was selected despite having been immersed in a conflict of interest legal battle over state-funded contract to defend former officials accused of corruption.
Diario Libre explains that the cloud of controversy surrounding the new member of the Dominican Republic’s Chamber of Accounts, Francisco Franco dates back to a previous Chamber of Accounts membership.
Diario Libre reports that Francisco Franco Soto was sworn in as a member of the Chamber of Accounts by the Senate last week despite the ongoing legal battle regarding a contract he had signed to defend former Chamber president Hugo Francisco Álvarez Pérez (2017-2021) and two other members accused of “doctoring audits.”
The legal services to defend Álvarez Pérez, Félix Álvarez Rivera, and Carlos Noé Tejada Díaz—who are being investigated in the Operación Caracol case—were contracted with Franco Soto and other lawyers for a sum exceeding RD$6 million, paid by the state institution itself.
The Chamber of Accounts, led by Janel Ramírez Sánchez, who replaced Álvarez Pérez’s administration, requested four years ago that the Administrative Superior Court (TSA) declare the resolution DEC-X-2021-001, which contracted the legal firm “Abogados Inteligencia Legal, S.R.L.,” represented by Jennifer Rodríguez Gómez and Francisco Franco Soto, as harmful to the public interest.
The outgoing Chamber members understood that their predecessors should have paid for their defense against corruption accusations with their own resources, not state funds.
On 31 January 2023, the Fifth Room of the TSA issued a sentence welcoming the Chamber’s request and declared the resolution null and void as it was issued “in violation of established regulations.”
However, the ruling was appealed, and the Supreme Court of Justice (SCJ) referred the case to the Fourth Room of the TSA due to the original ruling’s “formal defect related to its motivation.”
This latter court, the Fourth Room of the TSA, issued its sentence on 26 December 2024, just days after the Chamber of Deputies had concluded interviews with candidates for the external control body of public resources. The procedure is for the Chamber of Deputies to present the selection of candidates for the Chamber of Deputies to the Senate that has the last vote in Congress. This decision maintained the validity of the contract with “Inteligencia Legal, SRL and Francisco Franco Soto” as meeting all legal requirements.
The judges of the Fourth Room of the TSA argued that the Chamber’s Resolution ADM-2021-X-008, issued on 1 November 2021, declaring the contract harmful, lacked justification and motivation for its unilateral revocation. Judges Román A. Berroga Hiciano (President), Claudia M. Peña Peña, and Cecilia Badía Rosario also alleged that the “Administration cannot prejudice the administrator in favor of whom the act was issued or third parties who may be affected.”
They further contended that the Chamber “violated the right to defense and the principle of legal certainty favoring the opposing parties by initiating a process of declaring harm without specifying the contradiction to the law and the injury caused to the general public interest that would invalidate it.”
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Diario Libre
28 April 2025