ARTICLE - D.R. INVESTIGATES CONTRACTS

DOMINICAN AUTHORITIES INVESTIGATING HAITIAN CONTRACTS OF SENATOR
(Miami Herald) - By Ezra Fieser and Jacqueline Charles

Allegations that Haitian President Michel Martelly received at least $2.5 million in contributions from a powerful ally of Dominican President Leonel Fernández are causing political stir

SANTO DOMINGO - Dominican prosecutors said Monday they are investigating allegations of corruption against an influential senator whose companies won millions of dollars in construction contracts in post-earthquake Haiti.

The National Directorate of the Prosecution of Administrative Corruption told The Miami Herald that Félix Bautista, a senator from San Juan with alleged ties to Haitian President Michel Martelly, is under investigation. He also is a close ally of Dominican President Leonel Fernández.

Bautista is accused of wielding his influence to win contracts for lucrative construction projects in Haiti, totaling more than $200 million, even though they did not meet the country’s procurement rules.

Those accusations took on new life Monday after Nuria Piera, a Dominican investigative journalist, produced spreadsheets allegedly compiled from bank records that showed Bautista’s companies had given $2.5 million to Martelly, both before and after he won the presidency last year.

In her report, Piera said Hadom, one of Bautista’s companies, won contracts worth millions in Haiti. “Now we realize why,’’ she said.

She also showed documents revealing that on Nov. 5, 2011, Martelly, who was already in office, received $150,000 from Hadom.

The report, which focused on the months leading up to Haiti’s presidential runoff, also said Bautista gave a $250,000 campaign contribution to former presidential candidate Mirlande Manigat on Feb. 18, 2011. Manigat said she received campaign contributions from various sources, but always told her team not to accept suspect campaign funds.

Haiti’s National Palace issued a statement saying it “rejects categorically the allegations that the President of the Republic, Mr. Michel Joseph Martelly, has been involved in any corruption case involving firms or individuals from the Dominican Republic.”

The palace called the accusations a “media lynching” designed “to sully the image of President Martelly and undermine” his integrity.

Bautista did not return calls on Monday. But he has denied any wrongdoing. In interviews with Dominican newspapers, he said the contracts were awarded legally.

In an effort to clear his name, he met with prosecutors last week and asked for an investigation into the corruption claims.

On Monday, Haitian lawmaker Tholbert Alexis told a local radio station, Scoop FM, that he plans to mount a commission to look into the allegations.

Outgoing Haiti Prime Minister Garry Conille had called for an audit of the contracts won by the Dominican companies.

Bautista has claimed principal ownership of Hadom and Roffy, S.A., the two Dominican firms at the center of the contract inquiry in Haiti.

According to Haitian officials, Hadom was only incorporated as a Haitian firm on July 2010, and was awarded a contract four months later. Among its contracts: $33 million to construct a new parliament building.

Roffy, meanwhile, was awarded $174 million to construct the Fort National housing project.

The contracts were awarded by former Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive, who defended his right to use Haiti’s 18-month post-quake emergency law to award no-bid contracts.

Bellerive said the principals he dealt with from the Dominican firms were all different, and he denied knowing that Bautista was a shareholder.

“It’s true that Felix Bautista presented us with several Dominican companies because we asked Leonel Fernández to help us find companies willing to work right away — even without advance payment. [I] did not know he was owner of shares in those different companies,” Bellerive said.

Bautista plays a prominent role in Fernández’s Dominican Liberation Party, which has said the accusations are lies being spread by the opposition..

Martelly met last week with Fernández during an official visit in which he received a cross under the Order of Merit of Duarte, Sanchez and Mella, the highest honor for a foreign chief of state.

At the meeting, both presidents signed seven agreements, dealing with matters ranging from collaboration on higher education to security along the border that divides the island of Hispaniola, which the countries share.