Most Dominicans say power plant contract has irregularities

Santo Domingo.- 68% of the population believes there are irregularities in the contract between the Dominican Government and the Brazilian company Odebrecht for the construction of the Punta Catalina power plant, according to the adults polled by Gallup-Hoy.

The survey found that 90.8% of the citizens believe that the plant’s   cost was ballooned; 90% say there were irregularities in the bidding, and 78% that there were also irregularities in the process to award the contract.

In response to the questioned allocation of the coal plants, president Danilo Medina designated a commission to review the bidding process. In its results, the commission said there was no evidence of wrongdoing neither in the bids, awarding, nor overvaluation.

In that regard, 78% of the citizens believe that the report doesn’t adhere to the truth, and only 17.9% believe in its conclusions.

The survey shows that most citizens (66.3%) know that Punta Catalina is a coal plant built by the Government to solve electricity problems in the country.

The survey carried out Oct. 14 to 20 has a margin of error of +/- 2.8%.