ARTICLE - D.R. CONTRACT QUESTIONS

QUESTIONS ON HAITI-DR RECONSTRUCTION CONTRACTS ENTER DOMINICAN ELECTIONS
(Defend Haiti) -

SANTO DOMINGO - The campaign director for the Revolucionario Dominicano Republic (PRD) Party on Wednesday, asked the candidate of the Dominicana Liberation (PLD), Party, Danilo Medina, to make clear his position on accusations of corruption, hanging over Senator Felix Bautista, a close associate of Dominican President Leonel Fernandez.

In a letter released by the Campaign Director of the PRD, Emmanuel Esquea Guerrero, Listin Diario reported, the Senator from San Juan de la Maguana, Bautista, is associated with at least 17 cases of corruption.

The paper included a contract for $130 million and another for $293 million that would have resulted in questionable agreements made during the transition of Haitian President Rene Preval and Michel Martelly.

"Mr. Medina, the country is waiting for your clear answer on these corruption cases of Felix Bautista, your companion to the political committee of the PLD, the main contributor of your campaign and confidant of the President of the Réoublique", the document says that if there is a refusal to fix his position on these corruption cases, the candidate would become an accomplice of Medina, and that the country could continue to be ruled by people indifferent to corruption.

The name of Senator Bautista is also cited as part of a payment of $ 1,200,000.00 [US] to President Alejandro Toledo of Peru for his campaign, according to the document of the PRD.

The Dominican Senate on Tuesday expressed its support to the representative of San Juan de la Maguana, who said that the construction of three thousand homes is his business in Haiti, and is being conducted honestly.

The Engineer, Felix Bautista said he had won tenders under the presidency of René Préval and, subsequently, President Michel Martelly and the former co-chair of the IHRC (Interim Commission for the Reconstruction of Haiti ) Bill Clinton.

He claimed to have legal documents that could substantiate his claims and he was ready to show them in due course. He also attacked those who, he says, are trying to discredit his business, believing that he had won through fraudulent bidding procedures, after the earthquake of January 2010.

Bautista also shoots arrows against members of the Partido Revolucionario Dominicano (PRD), which, he says, are panicked that "we will win the elections in the first round" (in May).