The Attorney General Office has announced it will receive compensation for US$184 million from the Brazilian construction company Odebrecht for admitting having paid US$92 million in bribes to secure contracts in the Dominican Republic. So far, only company representative in the Dominican Republic, Angel Rondón, has admitted to receiving the US$92 million as fees for his work to secure the contracts for the Brazilian company.
But opposition politician Max Puig says that if an agreement is signed with Odebrecht without releasing the names of those who accepted the bribes, the high level officials in the government would be admitting complicity in the scandal.
Puig is president of the Alianza por la Democracia (APD) political party. He considered that the authorities should follow the letter of the law and rescind the ongoing contracts with Odebrecht. Puig concurred with the President of Colombia, Juan Manuel Santos, who said it would be immoral to investigate only select contracts with Odebrecht, while not examining other deals. Puig said the Dominican government should act in accordance of other Latin American governments and rigorously pursue justice in the case of Odebrecht.
Puig stressed if the government accepts payment from Odebrecht without identifying those who were bribed it becomes an accomplice to the cover-up.
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Hoy
25 January 2017
