Contradictory reports came yesterday from Police Chief Bernardo Santana Paez and Interior and Police Minister Franklin Almeyda on the subject of the controversial US$132 million loan the government took out to pay "The Sun Land Group" for supplying equipment for the Police department.
Speaking yesterday from the Ministry of Interior and Police for a live transmission of the Gobierno de la Manana radio program, the Police Chief said, "I have no knowledge of that situation, nor have I dealt with that loan, nor has anyone sat down with me to explain what it is about."
The statement came after Almeyda assured the audience that a commission that included the police department had put together the list of equipment to be purchased with the loan.
For Almeyda, apparently, the loan is still going as he pointed out that the law does not require tenders to be held in security matters. Spokesman for the PLD party and sectors within the government rejected the US$132 million loan after it was rushed through by out-going legislators at the end of the present congressional period.
The Interior & Police Minister said that President Fernandez would have the final say about the loan. President Fernandez himself has not spoken up on the loan.
The Police chief and the minister have had their differences. The day before, the press had reported that Almeyda had criticized the Police for keeping officers who had tested positive for drugs. Interior and Police Minister Franklin Almeyda had said that he hoped that the 61 officers who had tested positive for drugs would actually be fired, and expressed concern about the fact that many police officers who had supposedly been fired for misdemeanors had later returned to the force or never even left.
Police Chief Bernardo Santana Paez responded by saying that 670 police agents have been fired since he took office, a "prophylaxis" that is being based on "real evidence", according to a report by Diario Libre.
The US$132 million loan includes the purchase of computers for police cars at prices of US$9,000 when more sophisticated models used by the US police can be purchased for US$3,000, as explained by Hiddekel Morrison in his Technology & Telecommunications column in today's Diario Libre.

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