Ballooned budgets add to powerful Senator’s corruption allegations

Santo Domingo.- The State Works Engineer Supervisors Office (Oisoe) ballooned the budgets of at least 39 of the projects it contracted from 2005 to 2008, adding RD$6.5 billion to the original costs of RD$4.2 billion.

In a detailed report which cites a preliminary audit by the Accounts Chamber in 2009, newspaper Hoy said contracts had cost overruns as high as 1,473%, a percentage found in the budget to remodel the National Library, which ended up costing RD$1.3 billion more than the original RD$88.8 million.

Another ballooned budget was found in the reconstruction of the Mauricio Baez Civic Center, where RD$305.8 million were added to the original RD$52.7 million, or 579.89 percent higher.

The report also lists the works not yet to conclude in the Santo Domingo State University UASD, where RD$1.19 billion was added to the original RD$283.1 million, a 420.4% jump.

Hoy also reveals major cost overruns in the construction of the UASD’s administrative building, cafeteria and parking lots, and in the reconstruction of the Bellas Artes building.

The figures add to the allegations of corruption against one of president Leonel Fernandez’s closest collaborators, senator Felix Bautista, who was the head of the Oisoe during that period.