Guillermo Moreno, the president of the Alianza País political party, says what Attorney General Jean Alain Rodríguez has done is but a farce of an investigation into the Odebrecht bribes scandal, in which the company admitted to paying US$192 million in bribes to secure contract work in the Dominican Republic.
On Wednesday, 23 August 2017, Moreno presented to the Attorney General Office (PGR) a legal recourse requesting the expansion of the Odebrecht investigation. The PGR has until 7 February 2018 to prepare the incriminatory case.
Moreno says so far all the Attorney General has done is to accept as the truth the confessions made by the executives of Odebrecht in the file received from the Brazilian prosecutors. “We say no, that is not a fact, we don’t have reason to simply believe the words of Odebrecht.
More so, in the places where the prosecutors or the public ministry have investigated, it has been proven that Odebrecht aside from being corrupt, in addition to criminal practices, is also a liar,” said Moreno, speaking on the program La Super 7 en la Mañana on 107.7 FM. He mentioned the case of Colombia where Odebrecht said it had bribes officers with US$11 million, but state prosecutors determined more than US$46 million had been paid. Or that of Peru, where the multinational confessed to paying US$29 million in bribes, but state investigation proved it was more than US$40 million.
On the talk show that the attorney general had left out many persons that should be investigated. Moreno said that the prosecutors need to investigate President Danilo Medina and former Presidents Leonel Fernandez and Hipolito Mejia. He criticized that the Minister of Public Works Gonzalo Castillo, who contracted several of the works, and the executive vice president of the Public Electricity Corporation (CDEEE) Ruben Jimenez Bichara, who awarded the construction of the Punta Catalina Thermoelectric.
He also criticized that the president of the Senate, Reinaldo Pared Pérez, former president of the Senate, Cristina Lizardo, and former president of the Chamber of Deputies, during whose terms most of the Odebrecht public works were approved by Congress have not been included.
“In the case of Reinaldo Pared, he was the one who told the legislators what to do, then the investigation cannot be complete if he is not included. He also criticized the excluding of the former ministers of Hacienda Daniel Toribio, Vicente Bengoa and Simón Lizardo from the investigation.
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Diario Libre
7 Dias
29 August 2017
