NewsWhore
05-05-2009, 06:20 PM
A lack of compliance by both parties, legal, financial and technological, surfaced in an audit carried out on the contract underwritten in 2004 for US$63.6 million between the Central Electoral Board and the Consortium Soluciones Modernas (SOMO) for the project to modernize the civil registry.
The final report of the audit, approved last week by the full board of the JCE, shows that upon not obtaining international financial backing for the project, the JCE used US$8,996,227 of its own budget to pay part of the capital and interest on a bridge financing that on 20 September 2008 had reached more than US$12 million.
The same audit carried out by the consortium RSM-Bepam-P&H-SMA, says that, "as a result that affected the operations of the JCE."
According to what Diario Libre has learned, two international banks were willing to finance the civil registry computerization project. However, by 31 January 2005 the Dominican Republic had signed a Stand-by Arrangement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that did not allow the Dominican Republic to go over a certain debt limit. Because of this, a local loan was sought with the BanReservas for US$35 million.
The JCE judges have reiterated that the crisis is due to the fact that this bank discounted RD$45 million each month for payment of the loan. Nevertheless, they did not indicate the nearly US$9 million used from the internal budget to pay for the project, when the budget assignment for the JCE for this year and last reached RD$2.432 billion.
The financial crisis that is being experienced by the JCE might well affect the preparations for the next congressional and municipal elections in 2010. According to what magistrate Jose Angel Aquino revealed to Diario Libre, the JCE Administrative Chamber may have to obtain a loan in order to manage the elections, and this would just make the crisis all the more profound.
The debts are also affecting the project to capture the biometric data, the change of the "cedula" (the personal ID and voter registration card) and the late birth registrations program.
The audit also revealed contractual violations of the Laws of Procurement and the Budget Law for the Public Sector. The first establishes that the assignment of funds to similar projects (Like JCE and SOMO) should be submitted for approval to the National Budget Office. Regarding the Budget Law, the JCE should have also submitted the budget for the project to the National Congress so as not to affect the JCE finances so much. On the question of the bidding process, the audit showed that SOMO, a consortium of several international companies, did not present any documentation that would show other projects, with the exception of projects in Brazil, from 1996 by the Samurai Company, a member of the consortium.
The audit also points out that the JCE did not fulfill its obligation to install the computer equipment in the Civil Registry Offices.
Three years ago, a legal dispute between the JCE and SOMO began, since the former stopped the work for alleged failure to comply with the contract. Last 9 February, the Santo Domingo Chamber of Commerce ruled that the JCE should pay US$9,042,000 to SOMO for work delivered and not paid for. To this decision the Chamber added a fine for each day's delay in payment, and this fine now totals over one million dollars.
The audit seemed to suggest that it was not convenient for the JCE to finish up the contract since another bidding process would generate money and time. If the contract were to continue, the audit recommended a revision of the unfulfilled points.
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#7)
The final report of the audit, approved last week by the full board of the JCE, shows that upon not obtaining international financial backing for the project, the JCE used US$8,996,227 of its own budget to pay part of the capital and interest on a bridge financing that on 20 September 2008 had reached more than US$12 million.
The same audit carried out by the consortium RSM-Bepam-P&H-SMA, says that, "as a result that affected the operations of the JCE."
According to what Diario Libre has learned, two international banks were willing to finance the civil registry computerization project. However, by 31 January 2005 the Dominican Republic had signed a Stand-by Arrangement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that did not allow the Dominican Republic to go over a certain debt limit. Because of this, a local loan was sought with the BanReservas for US$35 million.
The JCE judges have reiterated that the crisis is due to the fact that this bank discounted RD$45 million each month for payment of the loan. Nevertheless, they did not indicate the nearly US$9 million used from the internal budget to pay for the project, when the budget assignment for the JCE for this year and last reached RD$2.432 billion.
The financial crisis that is being experienced by the JCE might well affect the preparations for the next congressional and municipal elections in 2010. According to what magistrate Jose Angel Aquino revealed to Diario Libre, the JCE Administrative Chamber may have to obtain a loan in order to manage the elections, and this would just make the crisis all the more profound.
The debts are also affecting the project to capture the biometric data, the change of the "cedula" (the personal ID and voter registration card) and the late birth registrations program.
The audit also revealed contractual violations of the Laws of Procurement and the Budget Law for the Public Sector. The first establishes that the assignment of funds to similar projects (Like JCE and SOMO) should be submitted for approval to the National Budget Office. Regarding the Budget Law, the JCE should have also submitted the budget for the project to the National Congress so as not to affect the JCE finances so much. On the question of the bidding process, the audit showed that SOMO, a consortium of several international companies, did not present any documentation that would show other projects, with the exception of projects in Brazil, from 1996 by the Samurai Company, a member of the consortium.
The audit also points out that the JCE did not fulfill its obligation to install the computer equipment in the Civil Registry Offices.
Three years ago, a legal dispute between the JCE and SOMO began, since the former stopped the work for alleged failure to comply with the contract. Last 9 February, the Santo Domingo Chamber of Commerce ruled that the JCE should pay US$9,042,000 to SOMO for work delivered and not paid for. To this decision the Chamber added a fine for each day's delay in payment, and this fine now totals over one million dollars.
The audit seemed to suggest that it was not convenient for the JCE to finish up the contract since another bidding process would generate money and time. If the contract were to continue, the audit recommended a revision of the unfulfilled points.
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#7)