Santo Domingo.- Public Works minister Victor Diaz Rúa said Monday the entity hired a law firm to initiate a legal process against the highway concessionaire company Autopistas del Este (CODACSA S.A.), for breach of contract and allegedly swindling the Government.

He said the company, of U.S. and Spanish origin, has been in the country for more than seven years constructing a section of the Eastern Motorway with State funds, collected at the toll in Las Américas highway, which he said makes around RD$20 million monthly.

Diaz Rúa, interviewed in Colorvision’s Hoy Mismo program, said he has a letter that proves CODACSA’s intent to transfer the work’s contract  to a Brazilian and Colombian company for 111 million dollars. "They have violated the contract, because they sell a highway for 111 million dollars, which they are doing with Dominican taxpayers’ money; they came to do a business, and want us to allow a swindle of that magnitude and for us to stay put."

The official said the contract establishes that to sue that company it requires an international arbitration court, so the Government tries to assume the construction  of the Eastern Motorway while the process concludes. "We’ll not allow them to continue profiting on the basis of the State, for that reason we’ll look for the way, according to law, so this project doesn’t get paralyzed. We’re going to finish it because it’s a necessity and the lawsuit is long."