Journalist Juan Bolívar Díaz analyzes the Odebrecht-Attorney General Office deal in an article in Hoy focusing on the generosity of the agreement that violated the procurement law of the Dominican Republic and seemed to ignore the overpricing of the public works built by Odebrecht. The agreement allows for Odebrecht to continue operating in the country. Odebrecht, which is the contractor for the Punta Catalina coal-fired thermoelectric plant, has been singled out locally for major overpricing.
Díaz points to the relevance of the Attorney General not requiring Odebrecht deliver all the information to Dominican authorities concerning the bribes, but rather only producing results from inquiries in Brazil. He writes that the agreement signed calls for the delivery of all the information.
Diaz observes that six months after the scandal broke with the announcement in the New York Court of the US$92 million in bribes for the company to benefit from contract work in the Dominican Republic “nothing has been advanced in four basic aspects.” He outlines these are: those receiving the bribes, the amount of the overpricing of the contracted works, the financing of the electoral campaigns and the confession that in 2014 Odebrecht moved its “Department for Structured Operations” to the Dominican Republic. This department was in charge of transnational corruption.
Diaz estimates overpricing at more than US$1 billion, much more than the US$184 million deal agreed to by the Attorney General.
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Acento
29 May 2017
