VHeadline.com commentarist Gustavo Coronel writes: Tuesday, May 13 was the date, aptly chosen, to publish the Regulations to the Law of Public Bidding (Licitations) in the GAceta Oficial (Venezuela's Official Gazette) ... this is a true horror story, as readers will soon appreciate.
In the acquisition of goods and services in both the private and public sectors, the prevailing mechanism is competitive bidding. This is done all over the world, except in very backward countries or where the dictator has the last and only say.
When constructing a public highway or buying a new airplane, transparency dictates that a competitive bid be conducted. The winner is not necessarily the company that offers the lowest price but the best combination of price, technical excellence, quality of product and the best management.
To be true, it is not a simple procedure ... it tends to be lengthy, is not corruption proof and could become a very tangled affair. However, it represents the least imperfect system, allowing for optimum transparency and accountability. In fact, Venezuela is internationally committed to the procedure under the terms of the Interamerican Convention Against Corruption, sponsored and signed by the Venezuela government ... a refusal to adhere to this policy is an open invitation to hyper-corruption.
This is exactly what the government of Hugo Chavez has just decided, violating Article III, points 1, 5, 6, 10 and 11 of the Convention. They have decided to allow all government agencies and enterprises to dispense with bidding for the acquisition of goods and services for the next 6 months ... on the grounds that a fast track is required to expedite an "exceptional" plan of economic and social development that no one knows about, not even themselves.
This anarchic measure will justify the acquisition of more than $2 billion worth of goods and services from "small, medium sized companies and cooperatives."
At the threshold of a referendum which might well result in the ousting from power of this government, this regulation clearly appears to be the starting point of an immense fraud. Companies and cooperatives mentioned above will probably be made up of friends and relatives. To add insult to injury the regulation allows the government to pay for the goods and services in advance if so required.
In Venezuela we have a saying: "Musica pagada no suena" ... Paid for music will not sound.
Of course this is not candor or naivete on the part of the government ... this is a conscious effort to walk away with bulging sacks of money when the time comes. I have seen a lot of corruption in Venezuela, but this new example comes at the top of the list, right there with Lusinchi's RECADI program.
I have to ask:
Have you ever seen a government which pretends to be honest and clean act in this manner? There is no transparency here. There is no accountability here. There is no regard for public opinion here. There is no respect for the institutions here. What we have is a bunch of crooks...
And you might ask: What do the comptrolling institutions say to this? The General Comptroller, Ombudsman, Attorney General, National Assembly, Police, the Pest Control Division? Absolutely nothing ... everybody is silent and watching the spectacle which is being put on by the very same people that four years ago came into power waving the flag of Anti-Corruption.
I tell whoever wants to listen: this a very corrupt government, not only because of what they are now trying to do but because of what they have already done. The Real Estate agencies in Florida already have many revolutionary clients ... you can look them up on the Internet.
Gustavo Coronel is the founder and president of Agrupacion Pro Calidad de Vida (The Pro-Quality of Life Alliance), a Caracas-based organization devoted to fighting corruption and the promotion of civic education in Latin America, primarily Venezuela. A member of the first board of directors (1975-1979) of Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), following nationalization of Venezuela's oil industry, Coronel has worked in the oil industry for 28 years in the United States, Holland, Indonesia, Algiers and in Venezuela. He is a Distinguished alumnus of the University of Tulsa (USA) where he was a Trustee from 1987 to 1999. Coronel led the Hydrocarbons Division of the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) in Washington DC for 5 years. The author of three books and many articles on Venezuela ("Curbing Corruption in Venezuela." Journal of Democracy, Vol. 7, No. 3, July, 1996, pp. 157-163), he is a fellow of Harvard University and a member of the Harvard faculty from 1981 to 1983. In 1998, he was presidential election campaign manager for Henrique Salas Romer and now lives in retirement on the Caribbean island of Margarita where he runs a leading Hotel-Resort. You may contact Gustavo Coronel at email gustavo@vheadline.com
Venezuelan Guayana Corporation (CVG) officials have announced that French Pechiney executives have expressed intent to set up a new alumina processing plant in Venezuela for which 200 tonnes of bauxite will be required. CVG president, Major General (ret.) Francisco Rangel Gomez says a precondition of agreement is that the bauxite should be processed locally, adding greatly to its overall viability.
Studies of potential demand for alumina on international markets have brought about Pechiney's interest in a new strategic association with the CVG to modernize and enlarge production capacity at CVG Bauxilum. Rangel Gomez points out that discussions have been focused on a feasibility study as the basis of future business, apart from an existing 6 strategic alliances contracts ... he emphasizes that any association between the CVG and Pechiney will be framed within Guayana regional policy with the sole purpose of changing industry conditions, not only in the export of raw materials but in adding value to resources in a step by step approach.
"We have asked Pechiney to speed up the feasibility study for the new plant to produce 1,000,000 metric tonnes of bauxite, since we consider that Venezuela is making advantages available to compete in international markets. In the near future, we will be setting up a timetable to determine bauxite quality and volume. Pechiney is to evaluate the possibility of a location in Caicara del Orinoco, which ties in with the construction of a 3rd bridge over the Rio Orinoco (between Caicara and Cabruta) which will provide easy access to a developing center in the Orinoco-Apure Axis."
Pechiney representatives says they're satisfied with CVG Bauxilum's progress and achievements, adding that they have in mind two investments in “red mud” storage ... the first earmarked for keeping actual levels while the second is for storing dry material. As to CVG Alcasa's Line 5, a feasibility study is being carried out on engineering work and highlighting the importance of commercial relations for the main raw materials.
BOGOTA -- An emergency war zone declared in eastern Colombia to crack down on Marxist rebels has failed to restore order or to stop political killings, the nation's human rights and legal officials said yesterday.
Selective assassinations continue, and violence has flared in towns adjacent to the Arauca region where military reinforcements were sent in by President Alvaro Uribe last year, Colombia's ombudsman, Eduardo Cifuentes, and its inspector general, Edgardo Maya, said at a news conference.
The presence of military reinforcements has reduced the death rate in the area, they said, but municipal officials fear for their lives and death threats have forced journalists to flee the oil-rich area on the border with Venezuela.
''Today the civilian population lives in fear, and the authorities themselves have no security,'' said Cifuentes, Colombia's top human rights official.
Shortly after he took office in August, Uribe decreed the ''rehabilitation zone'' in an area long under seige by Marxist rebels, and sent extra troops and police armed with broad emergency powers to detain suspects.
Until the reinforcements arrived, police in the Arauca town of Saravena had lived as virtual prisoners in their sandbagged barracks, under constant threat of bomb or mortar attack.
Colombia's constitutional court has recently declared most of the emergency powers illegal, although the rehabilitation zone in Arauca, and another created in the Bolivar and Sucre provinces, were due to expire anyway.
The continued presence of the military and police reinforcements has become the highest-profile test of Uribe's promises to crack down on illegal armed groups fighting in a four-decade-old war.
Cifuentes and Maya said Arauca needed more public investment as well as troops and better protection for officials working to build institutions in the province.
US special forces are stationed near Arauca, training Colombian troops to protect the Cano Limon oil pipeline from rebel bombing.
The Colombian Army, meanwhile, said it had arrested 70 suspected Marxist rebels in an urban sweep of the country's south yesterday, and the military said it confiscated explosives, guns, and 77 pounds of unprocessed cocaine.
The army's ''Operation Tempest'' took place in Caqueta Province and targeted urban guerrilla fighters from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, Latin America's largest guerrilla army, known by its Spanish initials, FARC.
One alleged FARC rebel who engaged soldiers in gunfire was shot dead in the provincial capital of Florencia, the army said.
Suspected rebels were also captured in the smaller city of Puerto Rico.
The military operation was among the biggest urban round-ups in recent months in Colombia. ''Tempest'' followed the capture of 14 rebel suspects over the weekend in the western provinces of Antioquia and Risaralda.
The Andean nation's conflict claims thousands of lives a year and has been made more complicated by the rapid growth of far-right paramilitary militias waging a dirty war to stamp out Colombia's more than 20,000 suspected rebel fighters.
The army said five of its soldiers were killed in combat with paramilitary forces yesterday, about 185 miles southeast of Bogota in the jungles of Meta Province.
Three paramilitary gunmen were killed in the same fighting, in a strategic, central drug-trafficking zone.
Colombia is the world's largest cocaine producer and one of the top suppliers of heroin to the US market.
Washington - The United States on Monday again apologised for a skit lampooning Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez performed at the US ambassador to Venezuela's residence last week, saying it was inappropriate and not representative of US policy.
State department spokesperson Richard Boucher said the skit at ambassador Charles Shapiro's home as part of an event marking International Press Freedom Day had "caught everyone by surprise" and was an abuse of the envoy's hospitality.
"It was inappropriate," he said in a written answer to a question posed at Monday's state department news briefing. "All should understand that this Venezuelan comedian does not represent the US government.
During the routing, the comedian poked fun at the controversial Chavez, including presenting a uniformed puppet of the former coup leader turned president.
Portions of the skit were videotaped and aired on Venezuelan television, causing an uproar and an accusation from vice-president Jose Vicente Rangel that Shapiro had violated the Vienna Convention governing diplomatic relations.
The US embassy in Caracas apologised for the incident on Friday, saying "part of the presentation's political content was in bad taste" and regretting that some were offended.
Venezuelans, however, appear to have not entirely accepted the apology and on Sunday the parliament denounced the skit as an "unfriendly act" by the envoy.
The parliamentary leadership said in a statement that it "fervently and categorically condemned the regrettable promotion of unfriendly acts...by Ambassador Shapiro". - Sapa-AFP
Deep divisions are again surfacing within the Organization of American States, as the 34-member group addresses Cuba's human rights record.
On Monday, Canada, Chile and Uruguay introduced a U.S.-backed statement condemning rights violations on the communist-run island. But, the measure was withdrawn after several member nations, including Brazil and Venezuela, failed to endorse it.
Later, 16 OAS members endorsed a revised text, which expressed deep concern about the sharp deterioration of the human rights situation on the island.
Monday's debate comes nearly one month after the OAS failed to agree on a resolution condemning rights violations in Cuba.
Nicaragua had presented that motion before the OAS Permanent Council, but the panel decided to shift discussion of the measure to its General Commission.
Representatives had questioned whether the OAS was authorized to issue a resolution on Cuba, which has not been a member for more than four decades.
The Cuba debate follows that government's recent prosecution of 75 pro-democracy dissidents for treason and subversion and the execution of three convicted ferry hijackers.