By Escarlin Pozo
El Inmobiliario
SANTO DOMINGO. -The former president of the College of Engineers, Architects and Surveyors (Codia), Teodoro Tejada, indicated yesterday that the works that have been activated and are covered by law 105-67, whose costs have increased with respect to the original contract, should be audited.
“The stalled projects must be terminated, and those that are necessary must have a survey and a realistic completion budget prepared and be put out to tender. Those that have been restarted need a forensic audit to determine the causes of their excessive increase over the original amount,” he stated via his X account (formerly Twitter).
In a thread on the social network, he showed his support for the decision that the Minister of Public Works and Communications (MOPC), Eduardo Estrella, would have made not to activate the works contracted under this law, which subjects the awarding of all engineering and architecture works of more than RD$10,000 to competition.
“I congratulate the Minister of Public Works and Communications, Engineer Eduardo Estrella, for his extraordinary measure of not activating works contracted under Law 105-67, of March 17, 1967. These works, paralyzed for many years, and when activated, increased their costs excessively, to the detriment of transparency,” he stated publicly.
The former president of Codia revealed, in a conversation with El Inmobiliario, that “Eduardo Estrella gave that information to his officials and said 'I do not accept activating contracts for works that are outside of Law 340'.”.
Teodoro Tejada. (EXTERNAL SOURCE).
The regulations on Purchases and Contracts, which came into effect on August 18, 2006, repeal the previous provisions, establishing a more rigorous and transparent framework for State contracts.
Teodoro Tejada categorically stated that he is a "champion against 'degree by degree' or direct contracting works," an action permitted by law 105-67 in its second article, which allows the Executive Branch to carry out this type of contracting.
In that sense, he declared that it was a law that allowed "open season for corruption from level to level.".
He emphasized that many of these contracts, after remaining paralyzed for a long time and still governed by the old law, have been activated without any control, allowing any contractor with access to a government official to buy that contract.
“There are projects that have reached that point in terms of 1 billion to 9 billion. Projects that have reached that point in terms of 100 million to 1 billion. So, what engineer Eduardo Estrella is correctly saying is that he will no longer allow projects to begin with contracts based on or founded on Law 105 of 1967,” he pointed out.
