DOMINICAN ELECTION #34: CORRUPTION AND THE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 SANTO DOMINGO 002078

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TAGS: PGOV KCOR DR
SUBJECT: DOMINICAN ELECTION #34: CORRUPTION AND THE
CANDIDATES


1. (SBU) This is cable # 34 in our series on the Dominican
presidential election:

CORRUPTION AND THE CANDIDATES

The heat of the campaign and the insistence of the Ambassador
and U.S.-funded civic groups have finally brought the
explosive issue of corruption into open debate. On March 26
the government's lawyers in Miami filed a civil action
against Baninter suspect Luis Alvarez Renta, as the Mejia and
Fernandez campaigns have been trading barbs about who knew
what when. We'll have more to report about that, soon. For
the moment, however, we're taking satisfaction in the outcome
and reports of events sponsored by two USAID-supported
non-partisan NGOs.

Estrella as Mr. Clean

NGO "Foundation for Institutionality and Justice" (FINJUS)
has asked the three major candidates to address directly the
issue of corruption. PRSC presidential candidate Eduardo
Estrella spoke to more than 500 supporters and election
watchers at the first event in the FINJUS series on March 10.
Third-ranked Estrella criticized the attorney general's
office for lack of prosecutions on corruption cases and
pledged to improve internal controls in that office, if
elected. He called for civil society and church groups to
serve as watchdogs over government institutions and measures
to enhance efficiency of state services and enterprises. He
advocated purging nepotism from government, saying that "(we
need) to get rid of people who are receiving salaries for
doing nothing."

Estrella called for implementation of an ethics code for all
government employees, as well as mandatory public financial
disclosure by government officials. Invoking the Dominican
trinity of Joaquin Balaguer, Juan Bosch and Jose Francisco
Pena Gomez, Estrella promised that "the hour to renovate our
social contract with the country has arrived. I, Eduardo
Estrella, will do it."

Estrella is running on his image of honesty. He has
reinforced this theme since the FINJUS event, telling crowds,
"As Minister of Public Works, I had billions of pesos passing
through my hands and I didn't keep a single peso." This
approach is consistent with his campaign theme "El pais no
aguanta mas!" ("The country can't stand it any more!"),
emblazoned on billboards beneath an image of the candidate
looking grumpily reproachful.

Leonel Fernandez - articulate and organized

The second FINJUS event on March 24 received mixed treatment.
Increasingly pro-Mejia (and increasingly shrill) daily
"Listin Diario" headlined on its front page the introductory
remarks of the USAID Mission director Brineman as if they
were the main event and broke new ground (in fact, Assistant
Secretary Noriega and the Ambassador had earlier been equally

SIPDIS
explicit about fraud and corruption in the collapsed Baninter
and Bancredito scandals).

Ex-president Fernandez's 45-minute address was very political
but nevertheless substantive. At times reading from his
party's draft platform (released March 29 - septel),he took
credit for anti-corruption achievements in his 1996-2000
administration and proposed additional measures for
institutional safeguards against corruption. The Department
for Prevention of Administrative Corruption (DEPRECO),
established in 1996, had been "perverted" by Mejia's
appointees and should be replaced by a National Office of
Prevention and Prosecution of Corruption, argued Leonel. A
1979 law requiring senior officials to declare their personal
assets should be enforced.
Fernandez would establish an "integrated system of government
financial management," with a standard outside accounting
system for all agencies and public access to the information
via internet. He would order a comparative study of best
practices in other Latin American countries, such as Chile,
to see what might be adapted for use in the GODR. He would
advance compliance with international conventions against
corruption, respect the independence of the judiciary and
professionalize prosecutors, and collaborate with civil
society groups, churches, media, and USAID on efforts to
inculcate non-corrupt values in society. At the same time,
he denounced "a group of mafiosi" in the media "at the
service of corruption." He opposed granting former
presidents immunity from prosecution, saying they should take
responsibility for their actions, and quipped, "That's why
I'm here."
A listener asked what Fernandez would do about the BANINTER
banking fraud scandal if elected. Fernandez promised no
executive branch interference in the prosecutions underway in
the courts. Another question about a corruption scandal at
the end of his administration, involving a jobs program
(Programa de Empleo Minimo Eventual - PEME),prompted
Fernandez to assert that such programs should be cleaned up,
not eliminated -- implicitly acknowledging that abuses had
occurred. He deftly drew a parallel with alleged welfare
fraud in the United States. Shortly after the speech, senior
officials in President Mejia's re-election campaign renewed
accusations that Fernandez knew of the BANINTER problem
before leaving office but swept it under the rug.

President Mejia has accepted the invitation by FINJUS to
speak at the planned third anti-corruption meeting on April

14.

Twenty years of impunity

On March 25, Participacion Ciudadana (PC - Citizens'
Participation) released a survey of corruption cases in the
Dominican Republic,"Twenty Years of Impunity: Investigation
of Corruption Cases in the Dominican Justice System,
1983-2003." Researchers found that only six of the 227 cases
that reached the justice system in that period resulted in
full prosecutions, leading to dismissal or acquittal in five
of those cases. Only one case resulted in a conviction,
brief incarceration, and then a pardon that relieved the
guity party of paying the assessed fine and damages. PC
Coordinator Alfonso Abreu Collado told a panel audience that
the typical official response has been to allow the accused
"a clean slate and a new start." The cases covered
administrations of all three major parties.


2. (U) Drafted by Bainbridge Cowell.


3. (U) This report and others in our election series are
available on the SIPRNET at
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/wha/santodomingo/ index.cfm along
with extensive other current material.
KUBISKE