The Senate yesterday approved on first reading a bill that would prohibit the government to avoid rules on submitting public works to open bidding by chopping the same project into smaller pieces. The bill, proposed by the Chairman of the Justice Committee, Milton Ray Guevara (PRD-Saman?), would require any project whose total value is over RD$3 million must be put up for open public bidding. Public works valued between RD$2-3 million would be decided by a drawing organized by the College of Engineers, Architects and Surveyors (CODIA). Guevara argues that the bill is needed because the practice of dividing up project to avoid bidding rules is a common practice and "a major source of corruption in the Dominican Republic."
