NewsWhore
08-05-2008, 03:40 PM
Nuria Piera and Huchi Lora are questioning the veracity of tests results on the Ladom school breakfast supplies that were presented last month by press secretary Rafael Nunez. At a press conference called at the Presidency in July, Nunez presented the test results, as government "proof" of the quality of the Ladom public school drinks. At a request from Piera, the press officer indicated that the Ladom test was from a remote school in the mountains of San Cristobal. The results of that test were considerably better than the results presented in the original tests carried out by Nuria Piera in May. The test, nevertheless, still did not meet the written requirement of the Ministry of Education for school breakfast drinks.
After traveling to the remote Zumbi school in La Loma, El Cacao, San Cristobal, Piera says the press spokesman for the Presidency lied. In a televised interview with the principal, he denied that anyone from any government department had visited the school to take samples of leftover milk. Furthermore, he said on the TV interview that they do not keep old samples and rather give the surplus inventory away because rats can enter their temporary storage facility.
As reported in El Caribe, Piera says that it would be necessary to determine where the samples came from and that if they were taken from the Ladom production plant, it would be proof of complicity between the factory and the Ministry of Education and its Department of Student Welfare.
The school principal presented a notebook where he kept the record of moving the inventory. Based on this, the journalists are disputing that the results of the milk from San Cristobal that was tested for the Nunez press conference could have been inventory dating back to March. Piera and Lora speculated that the government probably assumed that the journalists would not make the long journey up the mountain to the school to verify the information.
The journalists also questioned why the President's press secretary took on the defense of the private company. They are asking the company to produce lab tests for their samples for dairy supplies prior to May 2008, but this has not been forthcoming. The journalists said they have now resorted to the law of access to public information and have asked the Ministry of Education to release all test results carried out to drink samples since the start of the year. The director of the governmental Institute of Biotechnology and Innovation said earlier in an interview with Lora that these tests had been carried out periodically by the IIBI.
Piera also ascertained that following the TV program where she exposed the low quality of Ladom school breakfast supplies, the company stopped supplying the dairy product, replacing it with juice supplies at the San Cristobal school and several other public schools, in violation of Ministry of Education minimal protein level requirements. Piera pointed out on the show that juice does not have any protein content.
Piera and Lora expressed their concern that the school principal could be removed from his post for telling the truth. Piera and Lora say that since the May program exposing the low quality of Ladom supplies, the company has not been able to produce a single lab test that can prove they have met Ministry of Education written requirements.
Ladom recently announced that it would sue the journalists for their statements, which they say are affecting their sales. The Ministry of Education allotted Ladom 40% of school breakfast drink supplies for the past school year, Piera reported, making it the largest supplier to the government. This is a RD$18 million a month government program.
Rafael Nunez, the Presidency press secretary, has not responded to later inquiries by the journalists about the contradiction between the school lab tests presented at the press conference and statements by the principal that no one had sourced the samples at the school. Speaking on yesterday's afternoon CDN talk show, Piera told Lora that this could be a case of "deceit with capital letters."
For the videos of the case as presented by Nuria, see www.nuria.com.do (http://www.nuria.com.do)
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#7)
After traveling to the remote Zumbi school in La Loma, El Cacao, San Cristobal, Piera says the press spokesman for the Presidency lied. In a televised interview with the principal, he denied that anyone from any government department had visited the school to take samples of leftover milk. Furthermore, he said on the TV interview that they do not keep old samples and rather give the surplus inventory away because rats can enter their temporary storage facility.
As reported in El Caribe, Piera says that it would be necessary to determine where the samples came from and that if they were taken from the Ladom production plant, it would be proof of complicity between the factory and the Ministry of Education and its Department of Student Welfare.
The school principal presented a notebook where he kept the record of moving the inventory. Based on this, the journalists are disputing that the results of the milk from San Cristobal that was tested for the Nunez press conference could have been inventory dating back to March. Piera and Lora speculated that the government probably assumed that the journalists would not make the long journey up the mountain to the school to verify the information.
The journalists also questioned why the President's press secretary took on the defense of the private company. They are asking the company to produce lab tests for their samples for dairy supplies prior to May 2008, but this has not been forthcoming. The journalists said they have now resorted to the law of access to public information and have asked the Ministry of Education to release all test results carried out to drink samples since the start of the year. The director of the governmental Institute of Biotechnology and Innovation said earlier in an interview with Lora that these tests had been carried out periodically by the IIBI.
Piera also ascertained that following the TV program where she exposed the low quality of Ladom school breakfast supplies, the company stopped supplying the dairy product, replacing it with juice supplies at the San Cristobal school and several other public schools, in violation of Ministry of Education minimal protein level requirements. Piera pointed out on the show that juice does not have any protein content.
Piera and Lora expressed their concern that the school principal could be removed from his post for telling the truth. Piera and Lora say that since the May program exposing the low quality of Ladom supplies, the company has not been able to produce a single lab test that can prove they have met Ministry of Education written requirements.
Ladom recently announced that it would sue the journalists for their statements, which they say are affecting their sales. The Ministry of Education allotted Ladom 40% of school breakfast drink supplies for the past school year, Piera reported, making it the largest supplier to the government. This is a RD$18 million a month government program.
Rafael Nunez, the Presidency press secretary, has not responded to later inquiries by the journalists about the contradiction between the school lab tests presented at the press conference and statements by the principal that no one had sourced the samples at the school. Speaking on yesterday's afternoon CDN talk show, Piera told Lora that this could be a case of "deceit with capital letters."
For the videos of the case as presented by Nuria, see www.nuria.com.do (http://www.nuria.com.do)
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#7)