NewsWhore
03-29-2012, 03:00 PM
In a column in today's El Caribe, lawyer Marisol Vicens Bello describes how two years after the earthquake in Haiti, a new earthquake has shaken both countries. She calls attention to the significance of the situation where of US$500 million donated for public works in Haiti, around 70% was allocated without tender to companies controlled directly or indirectly by Dominican senator for San Juan de la Maguana, and close aide to President Leonel Fernandez, Felix Bautista.
"You do not have to be an expert in law to understand that it represents a conflict of interest that someone may use their status, and in this specific case their post in government and position in the government party for individual benefit," she writes.
She speculates that the recent official visit by the President of Haiti appears to have been a way of silencing the uproar that resulted from the auditing of the contracts for public works in Haiti, granted during the term of Prime Minister Jean Max Bellerive.
"Dominican society should not allow this to happen, simply another on the long list of cases that are not investigated by our authorities, not only because he is an elected official who the Constitution does not prohibit from exercising his private profession, but does make him subject to penalties for providing 'advantages to his associates, relatives, friends or allies', but because it opens the road to dark networks of deals with foreign governments in countries that same as here have institutional weaknesses, making corruption an export, an engine for dubious alliances and lucrative deals," she points out.
www.elcaribe.com.do/2012/03/29/nuevo-terremoto (http://www.elcaribe.com.do/2012/03/29/nuevo-terremoto)
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#11)
"You do not have to be an expert in law to understand that it represents a conflict of interest that someone may use their status, and in this specific case their post in government and position in the government party for individual benefit," she writes.
She speculates that the recent official visit by the President of Haiti appears to have been a way of silencing the uproar that resulted from the auditing of the contracts for public works in Haiti, granted during the term of Prime Minister Jean Max Bellerive.
"Dominican society should not allow this to happen, simply another on the long list of cases that are not investigated by our authorities, not only because he is an elected official who the Constitution does not prohibit from exercising his private profession, but does make him subject to penalties for providing 'advantages to his associates, relatives, friends or allies', but because it opens the road to dark networks of deals with foreign governments in countries that same as here have institutional weaknesses, making corruption an export, an engine for dubious alliances and lucrative deals," she points out.
www.elcaribe.com.do/2012/03/29/nuevo-terremoto (http://www.elcaribe.com.do/2012/03/29/nuevo-terremoto)
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#11)