SANTO DOMINGO.- The Norberto Odebrecht Construction Company has not been successful in its claim that the General Directorate of Public Procurement (DGCP) will enable it to register as a state supplier.
The Constitutional Court declared inadmissible an appeal for protection filed by Odebrecht against the DGCP, following the suspension of its registration in 2017, according to a publication in Listín Diario today.
The Brazilian company appealed to the Constitutional Court a ruling issued in 2018 by the first chamber of the Superior Administrative Court (TSA), which also dismissed the construction company's claim.
The Constitutional Court specified that the case originated with the request made by the Attorney General's Office to the Directorate of Public Procurement, on January 12, 2017, in order to impose a precautionary measure on the Norberto Odebrecht SA Construction Company, consisting of the provisional disqualification from the State Suppliers Registry, because there was an open criminal investigation against it.
The DGCP accepted the request of the Attorney General's Office, through resolution number 8/2017, issued on January 19, 2017, which ordered the disqualification of the company until "the Public Ministry concludes the investigation and presents a concluding act," says the media outlet with more than 100 years in the history of the country.
Then, on October 4, 2017, the construction company Odebrecht asked the DGCP to nullify resolution 8/2017 and to enable it to register as a State Supplier, arguing that the condition provided by that regulation was met.
Having received no response, the company filed an amparo action, which was declared inadmissible by the first chamber of the TSA, through judgment number 030-02-2018-SSEN-00265, issued by the First Chamber of the TSA, on August 27, 2018, because there was another effective way to make the claim, by virtue of article 70.1 of law 137-11, organic of the Constitutional Court and the constitutional procedures.
Odebrecht challenged that decision before the Constitutional Court, but its claim also failed, because it also declared the amparo action inadmissible.
The Constitutional Court accepted the appeal filed by the construction company, but overturned the challenged ruling and issued its decision on the constitutional action, declaring it inadmissible. The operative part of the ruling was made public by the Constitutional Court in communiqué 18/23, dated April 3.
We must wait for the full ruling to know the reasons for the decision.
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In 2017, the Attorney General's Office began an investigation into the bribes that the Brazilian construction company Norberto Odebrecht admitted to paying in the country, for 92 million dollars, to obtain the awarding of construction contracts.
Subsequently, the Attorney General's Office reached an agreement with the construction company, which was ratified by the Third Court of Instruction of the National District. Odebrecht agreed to pay double the amount of the bribes and to cooperate with the investigations.
The Attorney General's Office brought charges against a group of people, including Odebrecht's representative in the country, businessman Ángel Rondón, as well as legislators and former public officials.
The legal process concluded in 2021 with the conviction of Rondón and the engineer Víctor Díaz Rúa and the acquittal of Andrés Bautista, Tommy Galán, Roberto Rodríguez and Conrado Pittaluga.
The Court of Appeals is still considering the appeals against the sentence of the First Collegiate Court of the National District, which were filed separately by the Public Prosecutor's Office and the convicted individuals.
Source: Listín Diario.
Photo: Listín Diario.
