The president of the National Council of Transport says that problems with Plan Renove detected in the Controller’s Office audit are 90% solved. Siquio Ng de la Rosa ordered the audit upon being entrusted with the project’s execution. He said that accounting controls were put into place, missing units have been located and contracts signed with transport operators. The findings of the audit that covered the period between 1 January 2002 and 12 April 2003 have now been released to the public.
The Executive Branch’s legal advisor, Guido Gomez Mazara, favors that the all-but-defunct governmental Corruption Prevention Department (Depreco) be entrusted with what he called an in-depth investigation into the irregularities regarding the distribution of the Plan Renove vehicles. “Given a claim of this nature, substantiated by documents from the Controller’s Office, I imagine that the director of Depreco, Jesus Feliz, should look into it and proceed judicially if necessary,” he said. Gomez Mazara stated in an interview from the Presidential Palace that when the government has proven to the country that administrative scandals have occurred, it has proceeded against them through the courts. Regardless, of this opinion, there has not been any report of a notable government officer being sentenced for corruption in office during the Mejia government, nor cases advances beyond the press sensationalism stage when handled by Depreco.
De la Rosa attributed the irregularities with Plan Renove to the despair and confidence between the transport unions and the government authorities. He explained that several people received vehicles but forgot to sign papers.
Diario Libre’s editorial comment yesterday speculated that the Controller’s Office findings are released by the government itself to keep Dominicans captivated by the story and detract attention from real economic problems. Yesterday several news analysts concurred that anyone who believed the government would take any steps to penalize irregularities committed was just being naive.
It is unclear who released the audit findings to the press.