It started simply enough; on January 22, 2010, edition 32,120 of the Honduran La Gaceta was published. La Gaceta is the official publication of the Honduran government. It is published daily by the Empresa Nacional de Artes Gráficas (ENAG), 16 pages long, and contains the laws, resolutions, and decrees of the Honduran government that have been approved for publication. For congressional laws and presidential decrees, this is the last step in making them legal and placing them in effect.
This year on January 13, the National Congress passed a law, 207-2009 (also referred to as decree 293-2009), that allocated the rights to build, administer, and maintain a dam and reservoir in Nacaome, Department of Valle, Honduras. This contract for 25 years was allocated to the Italo-Honduran consortium, Compania Eléctrica Nacaome, Sociedad Anonima (ENASA), and was pushed through Congress supported by the de facto regime's Secretary of Transportation (SOPTRAVI), José Rosario Bonano, also responsible for hundreds of road contracts that are now being reviewed for irregularities. The building of the dam, and its use to supply water for drinking and irrigation was to be financed by the Italian government, while the turbines and machine room for generation of 30 megawatts of electricity were to be financed by the Spanish government.
So on the morning of January 22, when edition #32120 of La Gaceta was printed, this was pending legal business needing to be published.
Except that particular morning, there were two different editions of La Gaceta, both numbered #32120.
A mere twenty copies contained a copy of law 207-2009, making it official. These 20 copies were delivered to a representative of ENASA, for which they paid 20,000 lempiras, according to a receipt filed with ENAG.
The other 580 copies delivered to subscribers did not include Decreto 207-2009.
To be legally published, Martha Alicia García, the current director of ENAG, says that the text of a law must come from the Executive office with a signature of the Minister of Government. An order to publish must be issued by the director of ENAG, and it must then go through the production process, be reviewed for errors, and be published. This usually takes at least 24 hours.
The decree allocating the contract for the administration and maintenance of the Nacaome dam and reservoir was passed by the National Congress and, in theory, approved at the last cabinet meeting of the de facto government, the night of January 21.
However, there appears to be no signed order by the Minister of Government or from the de facto President ordering the publication of the decree, nor is there a signed order from the director of ENAG ordering its publication, nor did it take the normal 24 hours to get it into production. The decreto, in theory approved around dinner time, was then published in a special edition of La Gaceta, with copies all given to a representative of the consortium that benefitted, for which they paid 20,000 lempiras, less than 12 hours later!
The Assistant Director of ENAG, José Everaldo Robles, said such payments are normal and this one was based on the additional pages that were needed to print the law, at a rate of slightly more than 1,000 lempiras per page. While he did not find it suspicious that there were two editions, one with the law and one without, but he was concerned that the one with the law was of limited circulation. Martha Garcia, the Director of ENAG, agrees that it is usually the group that benefits that pays for the pages necessary to publish the decree that grants them the benefit.
The allocation of the rights to build the dam and generation equipment was questioned almost immediately, on January 23, by the National Electric Company's Employee's Union (STENEE in Spanish) who felt the National Electric Company (ENEE) should build and operate the facility. Multiple investigations, by Congress, by the Public Prosecutor, by the National Electric Company, and others, have all begun, with a scapegoat, the ex-Minister of SOPTRAVI, clearly in their sights. Edition #32120 of La Gaceta has been officially annulled. All of the laws and decrees published in either version of edition #32120 of La Gaceta have been put in limbo until they can be republished.
The administrator of the file room where the negatives of the pages of each edition of La Gaceta are filed has disappeared after asking for permission to take a leave of absence, along with the keys for the file room. The ex-President of Congress, Jose Alfredo Saavedra, under whose leadership the Congress approved supposedly approved the decreto in question, disclaims any knowledge saying he only oversees the discussion, not its content.
When we say that the de facto regime exploited their months in office to enrich themselves and those behind the coup, we expect the evidence to be obscured and the tracks hard to follow. Not that there will be a paper trail a mile wide documenting insider deals and corruption so clearly.
Showing posts with label José Rosario Bonano. Show all posts
Showing posts with label José Rosario Bonano. Show all posts
Saturday, February 13, 2010
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
New Government Questioning Financial Irregularities Under Micheletti
The Lobo Sosa government's Minister of Culture, Bernard Martinez, is quoted in an article in El Heraldo today reporting a major accounting problem: he cannot find supporting documents for 157 million lempiras (approximately $8.7 million US dollars) spent during 2009 at the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Arts. The news report summarized the problem:
But there is another perspective, which is underlined by the final line of the story:
The editorial comment links the new story to one that concerns potentially corrupt action that took place during the period when Roberto Micheletti controlled the government, when the Congress of Honduras went on an infrastructure spending spree.
El Heraldo raised questions about construction projects in a recent series of investigative reports. The most important documents over 150 increases in road contracts, and a questionable contract for a dam project. One of the subsequent articles identified Rosario Bonano, who resigned as minister of Public Works, Transport and Housing (SOPTRAVI) last August, as responsible for the increases in budgeted amounts for roadworks that are now being questioned.
As with the story today concerning accounting at the Ministry of Culture, the SOPTRAVI story was potentially ambiguous: Bonano was one of the cabinet ministers Micheletti kept on from the Zelaya government, even after asking for his resignation, reportedly because of a personal friendship.
But the questionable contracts were approved during the last three months of the previous government-- that is, under Roberto Micheletti. So, rather than simply being another round of beating up on former President Zelaya, these stories-- linked by the editorializing of El Heraldo-- could be the start of the Lobo Sosa administration exposing the Micheletti regime to criticism for cronyism, incompetence, and perhaps even corruption.
Lobo Sosa, after all-- and the new leadership in Congress-- represent the Nationalist Party: and they have no particular investment in preserving the reputation of the Liberal Party functionaries who made up the Micheletti regime.
Update February 10, 2010:
Apparently, the implication of disorganized administration stung Mirna Castro, who took control of the Ministry of Culture as part of the de facto regime of Roberto Micheletti. In an article in El Heraldo today, she presented her argument that her administration could not have been responsible for the misappropriation of more than 150 million lempiras.
Entertainingly, the numbers she offered make very little sense. First, she argued that the Zelaya administration Ministry had already spent 60 to 70 percent of the budget before the coup. She also argued that around 70% of the budget is never even touched by the Minister, but goes directly to sports federations.
The article suggests that the budget of the Ministry in recent years has been about 168 million lempiras a year. According to Mirna Castro, 70% comes right off the top and goes directly to sports groups-- 118 million, leaving a grand total of 50 million for all other purposes. What is utterly unclear is what Mirna Castro thinks this all says about the potential that her administration lost or never had appropriate documentation for expenditures. Especially since the amount Bernard Martinez is talking about would be 90% of the expected budget of the Ministry for the year, by her own account-- claiming that 60 to 70% of the budget was already expended under the Zelaya administration-- at least 34 million of the poorly documented expenditures had to have come under Mirna Castro's administration.
And if that command of math is any indication, it seems quite possible that it was even more on her watch that this absolute minimum her own statements suggest.
And another thing...
Today's Tiempo published an item in its Riflazo column that sharpens the focus on Mirna Castro; while these items are almost untranslatable, here's the original and my best paraphrase:
it is not known where this money might be because there is no documentation, since there exists administrative disorganization.The report goes on to say that Martinez
didn't venture to say if it was during the transition government of ex-president Roberto Micheletti or the administration of Manuel Zelaya Rosales.By itself, this could suggest continued pursuit of one of the Micheletti regime's favored storylines, of corruption in the Zelaya administration.
But there is another perspective, which is underlined by the final line of the story:
The State has been sacked two times, first the concession and broadening of contracts for roads and now the embezzlement in the Ministry of Culture... [emphasis added]Beyond exemplifying the fatal tendency toward editorializing in supposed news coverage in Honduras, what does this mean?
The editorial comment links the new story to one that concerns potentially corrupt action that took place during the period when Roberto Micheletti controlled the government, when the Congress of Honduras went on an infrastructure spending spree.
El Heraldo raised questions about construction projects in a recent series of investigative reports. The most important documents over 150 increases in road contracts, and a questionable contract for a dam project. One of the subsequent articles identified Rosario Bonano, who resigned as minister of Public Works, Transport and Housing (SOPTRAVI) last August, as responsible for the increases in budgeted amounts for roadworks that are now being questioned.
As with the story today concerning accounting at the Ministry of Culture, the SOPTRAVI story was potentially ambiguous: Bonano was one of the cabinet ministers Micheletti kept on from the Zelaya government, even after asking for his resignation, reportedly because of a personal friendship.
But the questionable contracts were approved during the last three months of the previous government-- that is, under Roberto Micheletti. So, rather than simply being another round of beating up on former President Zelaya, these stories-- linked by the editorializing of El Heraldo-- could be the start of the Lobo Sosa administration exposing the Micheletti regime to criticism for cronyism, incompetence, and perhaps even corruption.
Lobo Sosa, after all-- and the new leadership in Congress-- represent the Nationalist Party: and they have no particular investment in preserving the reputation of the Liberal Party functionaries who made up the Micheletti regime.
Update February 10, 2010:
Apparently, the implication of disorganized administration stung Mirna Castro, who took control of the Ministry of Culture as part of the de facto regime of Roberto Micheletti. In an article in El Heraldo today, she presented her argument that her administration could not have been responsible for the misappropriation of more than 150 million lempiras.
Entertainingly, the numbers she offered make very little sense. First, she argued that the Zelaya administration Ministry had already spent 60 to 70 percent of the budget before the coup. She also argued that around 70% of the budget is never even touched by the Minister, but goes directly to sports federations.
The article suggests that the budget of the Ministry in recent years has been about 168 million lempiras a year. According to Mirna Castro, 70% comes right off the top and goes directly to sports groups-- 118 million, leaving a grand total of 50 million for all other purposes. What is utterly unclear is what Mirna Castro thinks this all says about the potential that her administration lost or never had appropriate documentation for expenditures. Especially since the amount Bernard Martinez is talking about would be 90% of the expected budget of the Ministry for the year, by her own account-- claiming that 60 to 70% of the budget was already expended under the Zelaya administration-- at least 34 million of the poorly documented expenditures had to have come under Mirna Castro's administration.
And if that command of math is any indication, it seems quite possible that it was even more on her watch that this absolute minimum her own statements suggest.
And another thing...
Today's Tiempo published an item in its Riflazo column that sharpens the focus on Mirna Castro; while these items are almost untranslatable, here's the original and my best paraphrase:
Something that isn't hard to believe... Bernard Martinez continues digging into Cultura. He swears that he has found some 150 million of pluckings that were squandered in the management of she who the "resistance" called "minister of lack of culture". The PINU party member ordered that the CIA, KGB, and FBI conduct a rapid investigation to capture those the had a party with the dough of the people.
Lo que no nos cuesta… Bernard Martínez sigue escarbando en Cultura. Juró que ha encontrado unos 150 millones de desplumados que fueron derrochados en la gestión de la que los de la “resis” llamaban “ministra de incultura”. El pinuista ordenó a la CIA, KGB y FBI una rápida investigación para capturar a los que hicieron fiesta con el biyuyo del pueblo.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)