SANTO DOMINGO.- The Public Works Minister denied that his denunciations on the alleged fraud against the Dominican Government in the contract with the road construction and concesion company Codacsa could take the country down a “rocky road,” as affirmed in a statement newspaper Nacional published.

Victor Diaz Rúa, in visit to Nacional editor-in-chief Radhamés Gomez Pepín, said the statement it published July 14, which crticizes the official for denouncing alleged irregularities instead of taking Codacsa to court, doesn’t relate to reality.

He said hisr denunciations don’t seek to mimic a theater, and are instea an effort to defend the national interest before a company which pledged to build the extension of the San Pedro-La Romana Motorway with its own funds within two years, and seven have already passed and it isn’t finished.

Diaz Rúa said that aside from that, the spending that has been realised have been with taxpayrs’ money, collected in the toll at Las Americas highway, that he also sees as incorrectly assigned to that company.

He said contrary to Nacional’s affirmation, the case in fact is in the courts.

He said the contract was placed under the jurisdiction of France’s justice, for which a Dominican Government lawsuit must be filed before that country’s courts. He Mariano German, who represents Public Works, has contracted a United States law firm.

Diaz Rúa said that according to the power-of-attorney signed by then president Hipólito Mejía, Congress was made to understand that it approved the contract between the Dominican State and Codacsa May 29, 2002, but not for the amount registered in that contest, rather for RD$4.4 billion, “which wasn’t a product of any bidding process.”