NewsWhore
11-01-2007, 07:20 PM
Bernardo Vega looks into the deal in his commentary in Clave newspaper today, mentioning that the Bush government has backed donations worth millions of dollars in equipment for Mexico and Colombia, but not for the DR that has instead resorted to financing these with commercial bank loans, backed by the guarantee of US export agency, US Eximbank. He also mentions the US$115 million Sun Land housing deal that a media scandal set back in November 2001, but apparently it was so far advanced that the government had to take on a debt of US$22 million for nothing in return. He also mentions the US$18 million in legal expenditures, administrative and banking costs, and insurance for the recently disclosed US$112 million deal with Sun Land for the construction of UASD facilities. This loan has been the subject of much press criticism for the government contracting 11 public works, and then accepting that only five would be built with the same amount of money. Vega wonders why, if the Fernandez administration has reduced the country risk substantially, did it not request financial packages from Citibank, Banco Popular or Banco de Reservas for the deal, given Sun Land's track record. "It looks like the government's new maxim is: "They were bad, so I have the right to be bad, too."
Vega comments that not only is Sun Land damaging with "scandalous loans," but that they also "have bad taste." He says that the sculpture that they gave President Fernandez' Global Foundation (Funglode) on 24 August 2006 is by a sculptor who sells his work on the Internet - www.frank-meisler.com. He comments that a dolphin sells for US$980 and a frog for US$1,450. He mentions that with so much profit obtained by the company at taxpayers' expense, the least they could have done was to donate a Botero.
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#6)
Vega comments that not only is Sun Land damaging with "scandalous loans," but that they also "have bad taste." He says that the sculpture that they gave President Fernandez' Global Foundation (Funglode) on 24 August 2006 is by a sculptor who sells his work on the Internet - www.frank-meisler.com. He comments that a dolphin sells for US$980 and a frog for US$1,450. He mentions that with so much profit obtained by the company at taxpayers' expense, the least they could have done was to donate a Botero.
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#6)