Biggest corruption source; government contracts, purchasing

Santo Domingo..- The spokesman of a prominent think tank on Monday said that government contracts and purchasing are the biggest source of corruption and dilapidation of taxpayer money in the country.

Institutionalism and Justice Foundation (Finjus) executive vice president Servio Tulio Castaños said the situation stems from the country’s political model, which allows many irregularities in government agencies and nothing happens. “This political model that has settled in the Dominican Republic promotes ignorance and corruption.”

He warned Dominican Republic’s political parties undergo a “collapse,” which he affirms is cause for concern.

He said there’s been no way to control and comply with Law 340-06 on the State’s procurement and contracting system.

Castaños said that Law’s reform would be the key to start confronting the disorder in public contracting and purchasing.

“In public procurement and procurement is the key, that is where most of the public resources in the Dominican Republic are squandered,” Castaños said, interviewed by the Teleantillas program Uno+Uno.

Odebrecht Limbo

The attorney said he regrets that the case of Odebrecht’s admitted bribes fell into a kind of “limbo” after National District Judge Alejandro Vargas ruled to reject a plea bargaining agreement with the Brazilian company,.

He said Vargas ruled that the Justice Ministry’s offer was akin “to curing a cancer with a Tylenol,” because the agreement violated the Code of Criminal Procedure.”

“The Odebrecht affair is pitiful, we did a study of the agreement and we could guess the judge’s decision, after the ruling we do not know what has become of that,” said Castaños.

He regrets that politics has invaded everything in the Dominican Republic and said that Justice minister Jean Alain Rodriguez, despite being a competent official, answers to the Executive Branch.