Utility official enters row on power plants scandal

Santo Domingo.- A senior official of Dominican Republic’s State-ownedElectric Utility (CDEEE) on Thursday decried the report in newspaper El NuevoHerald, "Odebrecht in Dominican has some of the highest wages in the world,"which he called not true and distorts reality.

Technical projects director Pablo de Jesus Rivas said the articlepublished May 11 by the Miami-based newspaper is biased and slanderous, and “putsinto questions a strategic project for the national economy.”

The official complained that the on the construction of thescandal-ridden Punta Catalina coal-fired power plants by the beleaguered Braziliancompany Odebrecht received inside information from Dominican government officialsto win the bid and pay workers wages as high as 1,000 times the minimum wage in the Caribbean nation.

"This information ignores the basic tenets ofjournalism, by relying on information provided by one single source, withoutbeing compared with neither with the CDEEE nor the Punta Catalina Thermoelectric,"Rivas said.

The official demanded a “rapid correction” of the articleto afford readers the possibility of having access to accurate and balancedinformation, adding that they are willing to provide any information which the newspaperneeds.