Roger_Noriega_300x225 Roger_Noriega_300x225 Roger F. Noriega @rogernoriegaUSA

Roger_Noriega_300x225 Roger_Noriega_300x225 Roger F. Noriega @rogernoriegaUSA July 13, 2015 9:29 am | AEIdeas Odebrecht scandal threatens Dominican president Foreign and Defense Policy, Latin America Recently published reports suggest that the public corruption scandalinvolving Brazilian multinational Odebrecht may have reached the Dominican Republic. President Danilo Medina’s popularity already has suffered, a month after his supporters engineered a constitutional amendment to allow him to seek reelection. As part of the investigation into Brazil’s state-owned oil company Petrobras, Odebrecht has been accused of bribing public officials to obtain government contracts. In a dramatic development, the powerful president of the company, Marcelo Odebrecht, was arrested on June 19 by Brazilian authorities. Dominican Republic's President Danilo Medina (C) waves after arriving in Panama City April 9, 2015. REUTERS/Edgard Garrido Dominican Republic’s President Danilo Medina waves after arriving in Panama City April 9, 2015. REUTERS/Edgard Garrido Odebrecht has a predominant role in the construction industry in the Dominican Republic, one of the 21 countries in which it has a presence. According to the Brazilian magazine Epoca, in January 2013 former president Luiz Inácio “Lula” da Silva traveled to the Dominican Republic for meetings with President Danilo Medina and his predecessor Leonel Fernández on behalf of Odebrecht. According to that published report, Lula apparently lobbied on behalf of the company to secure a contract issued by the state-run Dominican Corporation of State Electrical Companies (CDEEE) to construct a thermoelectric plant in Punta Catalina. Within three months of Lula’s visit, Odebrecht was awarded the contract, in apparent violation of government contracting regulations and despite the fact that its bid was more than twice that of a Chinese competitor. The Chinese firm Gezhouba Group Corporation (CGGC) has filed a challenge alleging a lack of transparency in the Dominican Republic’s tender process. The contract to build the clean-coal-fired plant was awarded to the Odebrecht-Tecnimont consortium, even though its bid of $2.040 billion was more than double the $900 million cost proposed by CGGC. Furthermore, because Odebrecht was under investigation by authorities at the time, the company should have been disqualified from the bidding process. To date, Odebrecht also has failed to prove that it can finance the project, which is another reason why a large number of companies were barred from participating in the tender. Independent deputy Minerva Tavárez Mirabal, a vocal critic of President Medina, has publicly cited rumors in the National Congress that the Punta Catalina contract was awarded to Odebrecht in order to raise funds for Medina’s 2016 reelection campaign. Authorities of the Dominican utility company have dismissed unsubstantiated accusations about the tender process. Presidential candidate Luis Abinader, who will square off with Medina in the national election next May, called on the president to accept an independent audit and investigation into the scandal involving several public works projects. “We are asking the President to act as his counterparts in other countries, who have opened high-level investigations.” Medina enjoyed extraordinarily high approval ratings during his term, but his popularity has dipped since his political allies pushed through a constitutional amendment allowing him to seek reelection a month ago. With Dominican politics heating up in advance of the 2016 election, President Medina’s reelection bid could be threatened by the Odebrecht scandal. Corruption scandals have crippled the administrations of several leaders in the region—particularly in Brazil and Guatemala. The Dominican Republic’s Danilo Medina could suffer the consequences if evidence of corruption emerges or if he appears to be evading responsibility. http://www.aei.org/publication/odebrecht-scandal-threatens-dominican-president/#.VahNOU-DKFE.twitter