politics

Letter: Torrijos DR work legit

A DR government official has said that a company headed by Martín Torrijos provided value for money.

President Martín Torrijos yesterday published a letter from the secretary of Public Works in the Dominican Republic describing work done by Torrijos’ consulting firm from 2001 to 2003 as “satisfactory.”

The letter, written by Victor Diaz Rúa, seeks to silence critics who claim that Torrijos' company received almost $1 million in payments while not providing any tangible benefits.

The contract was awarded by then-secretary of Public Works Miguel Vargas Maldonado, a friend of Torrijos. The contract was awarded without being put up for public bid, an apparent violation of government regulations.

The letter failed to impress Transparency International, an organization dedicated to battling corruption.

“A letter issued by an entity which enabled the consultancy to be carried out despite irregularities that have already been identified is worthless,” said Angélica Maytín Justiniani, who heads the Panama chapter of Transparency International.

She suggested that, if the government wants to put the issue to rest, it should make public the monthly statements that Torrijos' company was supposed to compile to document the services it performed.

“If those documents were published on the government's web site, it would demonstrate irrefutably that the consultancy was carried out despite the defects that we have already mentioned,” Justiniani said.

Torrijos has come under fire for his role in the consultancy since he does not appear to have performed any actual consulting work, and because he failed to declare the proceeds from the contract in his declaration of assets made during the 2004 election campaign.