Content area
Full Text
18 INDICTED IN SCANDAL A grand jury indicted 18 people on federal charges of running a kickback scheme, the latest in a wave of corruption cases in the U.S. Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, reports AP (August 9, 2000):
. The officials allegedly received $800,000 in cash, gifts and political donations for the governing New Progressive Party in exchange for a US$56 million contract to computerize the island's system for collecting property taxes. The alleged payments took place between en August 1995 and March 2000. Each suspect could get 20 years in prison if convicted;
. U.S. Attorney Guillermo Gil called the case a symptom of the cozy relationship between contractors and political parties. The officials, including two mayors, are on the board or work for the government agency charged with billing property taxes. Others indicted include officers of consulting companies Entec: Corp. and Hector L Rivas & Associates, accused of delivering the kickbacks. The case is the latest in a string of scandals that prompted Gil in February to lament that "democracy is for sale in Puerto Rico."
CORRUPTION SPARKS FEDERAL PROBE. A spate of scandals rocking Puerto Rico has prompted a U.S. Government crackdown and calls for accountability from the U.S. Commonwealth, which gets US$13 billion a year in federal aid, reports AP (August 7, 2000):
. The high-profile corruption has hit nearly all levels of Puerto Rican government, stretching from misappropriated AIDS treatment funds to a mayor demanding kickbacks for a cleanup contract. Previous administrations estimated 10% of the government's annual budget -- now at US$20 billion, about half from U.S. funds -- were misspent or lost to corruption, loose accounting and other causes, said Puerto Rico's own corruption crusader, Comptroller Manuel Diaz Saldana;
. "I believe that sunshine is the best disinfectant of all -- and that's why we are demanding answers to the problems we are seeing in Puerto Rico," said Sen. Christopher Bond, R-Mo. He chairs a Senate committee overseeing the U.S. housing agency, whose inspector general wants to clean up its Puerto Rican counterpart;
. In the latest development, Puerto Rico's housing authority, the second-largest in the U.S. after New York City, was accused of "flagrant fraud, waste and abuse," by Susan Gaffney, inspector general of the U.S....