national

DR official blasts contract

An official from the Dominican Republic said that no work was ever done by a consulting firm hired by his predecessor.

That firm, which was headed by President Martín Torrijos, worked for the DR government for 33 months.

COURTESY

together:Panamanian President Martín Torrijos (right) with Dominican Republic presidential candidate Vargas Maldonado. Maldonado awarded a lucrative consulting contract to a firm headed by Torrijos in 2001. But no evidence has been found to prove any work was done.1007677

The government of the Dominican Republic blasted a $250,000 annual contract awarded to a consulting firm headed by Panamanian President Martín Torrijos in 2001, calling the money a "gift."

Dominican Republic secretario de Obras Publicas, Víctor Díaz Rúa, said that the $1 million that was paid to Torrijos' firm benefitted Panama, and not his country.

"There was no work done," Rúa said on a television show in that country.

Rúa, however, declined to implicate Torrijos, and said the money was given to other Panamanians.

"Torrijos was not involved in any circumstances," Rúa said.

Torrijos, however, has admitted that he was part of the consulting firm that received the contract. In interviews earlier this week, he said that the firm provided consulting services to the Dominican Republic government, and that he had a right to seek out such work in order to make a living.

When the contract was awarded, Torrijos was not in office. The contract ended in 2004, shortly before he took office as president.

While Rúa said that no work was ever done by the firm, that claim has been disputed by Vargas Maldonado, the person who signed off on the deal and who is now running for president.

Through a spokesman, Maldonado presented papers that stated that Luis Blanco, an associate of Torrijos', spoke at a conference in June of 2002 in the Dominican Republic about the project to build the highway between Panama City and Colón.

Neither Maldonado nor Torrijos, however, has been able to produce the bulk of the monthly reports that were stipulated under the terms of the contract. These reports could not be found in any government file.

Maldonado did produce one such report, but it is not stamped or signed by either the entity that produced it or the one that received it.

It is titled "Situación Actual de las Concesiones" and was prepared by Blanco. It is dated February 2003. Maldonado also claimed that the consultants did other work, but has not been able to produce any evidence of it.