Budget Director: Purchase of hot asphalt concrete involved millions without audit
The purchase of hot asphalt concrete by the Ministry of Public Works and Communications (MOPC) in 2019, during Gonzalo Castillo’s administration, involved more than RD$ 20,550 million, according to the Budget Director, José Rijo Presbot.
This amount was divided into three items: the payment of RD $ 11,700 million to MOPC contractors; the payment of RD $ 3.75 billion to contractors of the Office of State Works Supervising Engineers (OISOE); and some RD $ 5.1 billion to the Reserve Bank for the alleged interest generated by these debts, Rijo Presbot explained during an interview on the Telematutino 11 program (Telesistema).
The Budget Director explained that Castillo ordered the purchase of hot asphalt concrete without having the resources because according to the appropriation certification it did not reach RD$ 600 million.
Therefore, he indicated that the order violated the budget law of that year and the Organic Budget Law for the Public Sector No. 423-06.
He added that these contracts were not audited, they did not go through the Office of the Comptroller General of the Republic.
“There was no previous audit there, nor was there any to cancel to see if all the rules were met. This is a flagrant violation of the law on the control of the national internal control system”, he emphasized.
He stressed that these irregularities undoubtedly merit a complaint file.
File depositing
This Thursday the General Director of Government Ethics and Integrity, Milagros Ortiz Bosch, and the General Director of Public Procurement and Contracting, Carlos Pimentel, deposited with the Attorney General of the Republic the file on alleged irregularities in the purchase of hot asphalt concrete by the MOPC during the administration of Castillo, past presidential candidate.