A feature in El Nuevo Herald, the Spanish edition by the publishers of The Miami Herald, looks into what it calls corruption and favoritism in the construction of the Punta Catalina thermoelectric central. The power plant is under construction by a consortium head by the Brazilian company Odebrecht. It again brings to light accusations that the project was plagued by overpricing and irregularities in the tender procedures.
The feature highlights the Dominican government supplied privileged information to Odebrecht to assist it in winning the tender. Furthermore, the Brazilian company subsequently billed exorbitant wages for project workers. The scheme meant that a welder was making more than the President of the Republic. At the rate of RD$41.3 to the dollar in 2013, when the contract was signed, a welder was billing RD$660,535.68 a month, more than the RD$450,000 salary of President Danilo Medina.
The tender was granted to Norberto Odebretch-Tecnimont for US$2.04 billion. The runner up company IMPE SRL, associated to Gezhouba Group Company LTD, of China had offered to do the work for US$900 million. Another contender Sepco III bid US$1.15 billion and Posco US$1.2 billion. The evaluating committee said that Odebrecht bid scored 48.95 points compared to 35.70 of Posco, 34.85 of Gezhouba and 29.95 of Sepco III.
The contract approval was fast-tracked by the Dominican Congress.
Read more in Spanish:
El Nuevo Herald
8 June 2017
