NewsWhore
12-05-2006, 05:20 PM
The company contracted for the automating of civil and electoral registry is again in the forefront. Antonio Lockward Artiles, recently fired secretary of the Central Electoral Board (JCE) has taken what he knows on Soluciones Modernas (SOMO) deal to the Department for the Prevention of Corruption (Depreco). Lockward claims that he was dismissed from his post at the JCE as a way of keeping him quiet, but said that this wouldn't work. Lockward accuses Roberto Rosario, the newly appointed president of the Administrative Chamber of the JCE, of being behind the signing of the now controversial contract with SOMO and says that he has chosen this moment to come out in the press because it is his last resort in trying to get the information out. Lockward is quoted in Hoy newspaper as saying that Rosario was the most corrupt of all the former JCE judges and said that putting the investigation of the SOMO contract in his hands was "like putting the Church into the hands of Lucifer," as quoted in Hoy newspaper. Lockward said that he would ask new JCE president Julio Cesar Castanos Guzman to hear his version of the story, which according to him, has fallen upon deaf ears until now. Lockward told Diario Libre that he hopes that he is not dealt with in the same way the Sicilian mob deals with people who know too much, and admits to carrying a weapon for personal safety.
The SOMO contract has been under investigation since February this year, with an audit being conducted on the contract for the purchase of RD$2 billion in equipment to modernize the JCE. The contract would provide electronic registration of births, deaths and marriages as well as voter registration, plus 14,000 electronic voting machines for the 2008 Presidential election. The audit was hotly contested by the previous JCE members and bidding for the contracts was also disputed.
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#8)
The SOMO contract has been under investigation since February this year, with an audit being conducted on the contract for the purchase of RD$2 billion in equipment to modernize the JCE. The contract would provide electronic registration of births, deaths and marriages as well as voter registration, plus 14,000 electronic voting machines for the 2008 Presidential election. The audit was hotly contested by the previous JCE members and bidding for the contracts was also disputed.
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#8)