New National Budget director Jose Rijo Presbot says that the Ministry of Public Works and the Office of Engineering Supervision of Works of the Presidency (OISOE) paid RD$21.5 billion during the transition period without these funds being budgeted or supported by documents from the National Controller or the National Treasury. As reported in Listin Diario, the funds were paid between 31 July and 14 August. The Medina administration ended its eight-year term on 16 August 2020.
Rijo says he is asking the legal advisor of the Executive Branch to begin an investigation into the anomalies in the awarding of the payments. The investigation is to include the Ministry of Public Works, the Ministry of Hacienda, the OISOE and the Banco de Reservas.
Rijo says that the RD$11.5 billion in asphalt work denounced by muckraking journalists Alicia Ortega and Marino Zapete is included in the RD$21.5 billion payment during the transition.
According to Rijo, an RD$250 million bond was diverted to be irregularly used to make the payments for the RD$11.5 billion in asphalt contracting. That contract was signed by former Minister of Public Works and former PLD presidential candidate Gonzalo Castillo and the sister of former Attorney General Jean Alain Rodriguez.
Investigative journalists have been unfolding extraordinary payments that were not in the budget, including generous retirements, millions in irregular severance payments, and amounts of past due accounts. This is in addition to numerous investigative reports on scandals in government procurement.
Read more on big-time corruption scandals in Spanish:
Listin Diario
N Digital
N Digital
N Digital
El Informe con Alicia Ortega
El Informe con Alicia Ortega
El Informe con Alicia Ortega
21 August 2020