Ex Finance chief ‘forgot’ documents on loans for Odebrecht

Santo Domingo.- Former Finance minister Vicente Bengoa on Wed. said he was asked for a deposition on the Odebrecht case, but hasn’t had time to look for documents because of the time passed since he headed that department..

“I can’t have so much information in my head, so many years, we are talking about 11 years,” Bengoa said at the Justice Ministry.

He said the Finance Law was amended so that all State loans have to be approved and handled by the Treasury Secretary, noting that it’s not just Odebrecht’s but everything that the law stipulates.

When asked about the loans approved for Odebrecht, Bengoa said that not all the loans approved for the construction company passed through the Treasury when he was there, and since then went to the State-owned Reservas bank, and during that time, loans were still approved, but he was no longer a minister.

On the documents he was expected to produce, the former official said that it was a file with which, “I am going to speak with him (the Justice Minister), if he wants more information I will return as many times as he wants.”

Bengoa arrived at the attorney general’s office at 10am to face questions on the investigation into Odebrecht’s admitted bribes to Dominican government officials.