government

Officials deny corruption

Ministro de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación Julio Escobar and Ministro de Innovación Gubernamental Gaspar Tarté defended their involvement in the decision to contract a company belonging to relatives of Tarté for the government-sponsored program "Conéctate al conocimiento."

According Tarté, there was “no legal way" to have prevented Metro Painting, the company run by Tarté’s brother Alex and his family, from participating in the public bidding process. "It would be arbitrary and illegal," argued Tarté. "It would be a discrimination," added Escobar.

The two ministers held a press conference in response to an article by La Prensa that revealed how Metro Painting had won two contracts worth $110,775 to be a part of the “Connéctate" program aimed at equipping more public schools with computer labs.

Tarté denied playing a role in granting the contracts. "I don’t decide, I don’t hire and I don’t sign the final acquisition procedures for contractors of the project,” he said.

For his part, Escobar denied allegations that some companies charged the government twice for the same work. "There are no cases of double billing," he said.

At the conference, Tarté let loose with mordant criticism of La Prensa. “For four years, La Prensa has been looking for an opportunity to attack me, and when they didn’t find it, they invented a way.”

The Ministerio de la Presidencia issued a similar statement yesterday alleging that La Prensa “aims to unilaterally impose a label of corruption,” but that its evidence includes “erroneous information [that] not only demonstrates a lack of professionalism and disrespect for the intelligence of its readership, but irresponsibly jeopardizes a large-scale tool for bringing equity and quality to education in our schools.”