NewsWhore
10-04-2010, 02:30 PM
Is the Fernandez administration sending a message to La Altagracia strongman Amable Aristy Castro? Shortly after the PLD majority Senate voted to elect PRSC Senate spokesman Felix Vasquez (Sanchez Ramirez-PRSC) to the National Magistracy Council instead of Amable Aristy Castro, a 2008 audit of the Dominican Municipal League (LMD) has been leaked to the press.
For years now Aristy Castro has been at the helm of the government body that manages funds for city governments. Aristy Castro was elected senator for La Altagracia province in May 2010, but has yet to be sworn in, as he would have to leave his post at the LMD to take up his post as a senator. He has said he will swear in, but has yet to do so.
Aristy Castro has complained that the choice of Vasquez violates the Constitution. He maintains that he is the only true PRSC senator because he was the only one to have been elected on a strictly PRSC ticket. Vasquez reached the position in an alliance with the ruling PLD party. Nonetheless, the Senate makes the point that electoral alliances are temporary and end once the election is over, and that Vasquez was elected PRSC spokesman in the senate.
As reported in Diario Libre, the audit shows that the LMD paid RD$70.4 million in "assistance" to individuals, in cash. There were also payments for RD$89.2 million for the purchase of foodstuffs, with no paper support (requisitions etc), payments of salaries for RD$32.3 million to employees who do nothing in the agency. On the question of these payments, the report reveals that the payrolls have departments registered that physically do not exist, which was proven by fieldwork and a visit to the eastern region.
This "preliminary report", which is dated March 2008 and covers the period between 1 January and 31 December 2006, had never been made public.
According to the information in the audit, reported in today's Diario Libre, the Municipal League owed the Retirement Plan RD$234.8 million, of which RD$171.8 million was in the form of loans, retaining the plan's resources in the agency, to the detriment of the beneficiaries.
The entity paid out the sum of RD$20.6 million for advertising. In the contracts reviewed by the Chamber of Accounts auditors, it was found that they were not written by the entity or validated by the legal advisor, and they contained contradictions between the duration and the renewal dates. Then there is the helicopter that was purchased for US$995,000, as well as equipment that cannot be found, offices that do not seem to exist and employees who do not go to work.
The Municipal League ran through more than RD$117 million during the audit year, with hundreds of thousands of pesos in checks to people who do not exist registered on their books, according to the Chamber of Accounts audit.
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#3)
For years now Aristy Castro has been at the helm of the government body that manages funds for city governments. Aristy Castro was elected senator for La Altagracia province in May 2010, but has yet to be sworn in, as he would have to leave his post at the LMD to take up his post as a senator. He has said he will swear in, but has yet to do so.
Aristy Castro has complained that the choice of Vasquez violates the Constitution. He maintains that he is the only true PRSC senator because he was the only one to have been elected on a strictly PRSC ticket. Vasquez reached the position in an alliance with the ruling PLD party. Nonetheless, the Senate makes the point that electoral alliances are temporary and end once the election is over, and that Vasquez was elected PRSC spokesman in the senate.
As reported in Diario Libre, the audit shows that the LMD paid RD$70.4 million in "assistance" to individuals, in cash. There were also payments for RD$89.2 million for the purchase of foodstuffs, with no paper support (requisitions etc), payments of salaries for RD$32.3 million to employees who do nothing in the agency. On the question of these payments, the report reveals that the payrolls have departments registered that physically do not exist, which was proven by fieldwork and a visit to the eastern region.
This "preliminary report", which is dated March 2008 and covers the period between 1 January and 31 December 2006, had never been made public.
According to the information in the audit, reported in today's Diario Libre, the Municipal League owed the Retirement Plan RD$234.8 million, of which RD$171.8 million was in the form of loans, retaining the plan's resources in the agency, to the detriment of the beneficiaries.
The entity paid out the sum of RD$20.6 million for advertising. In the contracts reviewed by the Chamber of Accounts auditors, it was found that they were not written by the entity or validated by the legal advisor, and they contained contradictions between the duration and the renewal dates. Then there is the helicopter that was purchased for US$995,000, as well as equipment that cannot be found, offices that do not seem to exist and employees who do not go to work.
The Municipal League ran through more than RD$117 million during the audit year, with hundreds of thousands of pesos in checks to people who do not exist registered on their books, according to the Chamber of Accounts audit.
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#3)