Dominican Republic´s fight on govt. corruption faces key test

Santo Domingo.- StateWorks Supervisory Engineers Office (OISOE)former director Miguel Pimentel Kareh will be interviewed Monday by the JusticeMinistry´s Anticorruption Dept. (Pepca), the first senior official to beinvestigated into the alleged corruption uncovered in the wake of a construction contractor’ssuicide.

The interview by theJustice Ministry will also likely reveal whether the government is willing tobear the political cost of indictments against senior collaborators, and whiterpresident Danilo Medina´s ´teflon´ administration will endure.

OISOE former technicaldirector Jose Florencio is slated for questioning by Pepca director Laura Guerrero."We will collaborate with justice, "Florencio´s lawyers said in a statement.

The former OISOE officialsaccompanied by their lawyers will go to Guerrero´s office between 10 and 11.30am.

The scandal brokewhen it emerged that a ring allegedly headed by Florencio withheld OISOE´s paymentsof installments to contractors during the construction of school nationwide, tothen extort the builders with illegal loans.

The alleged ring ofloan sharks allegedly also operates in the various departments of the EducationMinistry.