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NewsWhore
03-27-2012, 01:30 PM
Journalists continuously report on excessive payments for public works and wasteful spending by government, but there is the perception that "nothing happens" as the government controls the judiciary and purse strings at the same time.

Meanwhile, yesterday, Monday 26 March the PRD Economic Commission presented a long list of cases of unproven corruption in Fernandez's almost eight years of consecutive administration, reminders of cases that never moved much beyond scandalous headlines in the press. The commission estimated corruption at 5% of GDP in the past seven years, or more than US$13.9 billion. The PRD presented 71 cases, of which 32 were audited by the governmental Chamber of Accounts revealing significant irregularities.

As reported in Diario Libre, the cases mentioned include:

Building of the Supreme Court of Justice at a cost of RD$1.47 billion, overvaluation of the remodelling of the Palace of Fine Arts, overvaluing of the Cathedral of San Juan, overvaluing of the government website (Proyecto Portal Dominicano) for US$13 million when the IDB says should have cost US$2 million, overvaluing of the Inposdom contract for US$4 million with Host Chile, overvaluing of the metro cars estimating the overpayment to be in the order of RD$2.206,000,000, overvaluing of the Tucano airplanes, overvaluing of the Monte Grande Dam for more than US$100 million, and overbilling of garbage collection in the biggest cities controlled by the PLD and their allies. In the National District and the municipality of Santiago it is estimated that more than RD$4,000,000,000 was collected over the past seven years.

The PRD has based much of its presidential campaign on pointing to the increased corruption in the PLD administration compared to that of the PRD administration.

PRD commission spokesman Arturo Martinez Moya said: "Conservatively, the PRD Economic Commission has estimated the yearly PLD corruption at 5% of the GDP over the last seven years, which is half of the estimate by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). This means that in seven years corruption by the PLD has taken RD$544,276,000,000. Equivalent to US$13,955,000,000, and average of RD$78,000,000,000, equivalent to US$2 billion dollars, which came from the taxes paid by Dominicans and from the loans obtained to finance the budget," stated Martinez Moya. He said that a high-ranking figure in the administration, one of President Leonel Fernandez's closest collaborators, has managed to amass a fortune which can't be compared with that of any Dominican family which had dedicated itself to business over the past 100 years. According to Diario Libre, Martinez did not name the individual concerned.

www.diariolibre.com/noticias/2012/03/27/i329870_pld-prd-elecciones-corrupcion-politica.html (http://www.diariolibre.com/noticias/2012/03/27/i329870_pld-prd-elecciones-corrupcion-politica.html)

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