Santo Domingo-In the interest of making the investment of State resources more efficient, Attorney General Miriam Germán Brito signed an agreement with the Ministry of Housing, Habitat and Buildings (MIVHED) that speeds up the transfer of prison buildings that are built in various parts of the country and, at the same time, regulates subsequent projects in this area.
Germán Brito pondered the agreement signed with the engineer Carlos Bonilla Sánchez, head of the MIVHED, during a ceremony held in his office in which the General Administrative Director of the Public Ministry, Vilma Pérez, and the legal director, Frinette Padilla, were present.
Also present at the event were Danny Santos, Deputy Minister of Construction of the MIVHED; Claudio Stephen, director of Legal, and José Carlos Isabel, coordinator of the Office of Minister Bonilla Sánchez.
The agreement establishes that the state agency will work in the correction and rehabilitation centers, in order to comply with the provisions of Law 160-21, which creates the Ministry of Housing and always taking into account its budget availability and financial resources.
“The Attorney General’s Office, and the Public Ministry itself, have specific functions outside the field of construction. That is why we understand that it is more feasible to guarantee the streamlining of processes and the effective investment of public resources, that the construction of penitentiary precincts be executed from the Ministry of Housing”, said Germán Brito.
“The ministry that we lead will put all its efforts and technical criteria to carry out prison projects because we are aware of their need to establish adequate spaces for the rehabilitation of those deprived of liberty,” said Bonilla Sánchez.
The agreement establishes that the policies for the location, design, construction, equipment and security of prison and correctional buildings will be governed and supervised by the Public Ministry in coordination with the MIVHED.
Prison facilities will meet security needs and the concept of restorative justice and consistent application of the progressive system, in accordance with the provisions of Law No. 113-21, which regulates the Penitentiary and Correctional System in the Dominican Republic.
The Public Ministry must provide the Housing Ministry with copies of the plans of each of the constructions, a statement of the costs or financial statement of the work and of those pending payment, as well as a copy of the observations of each of the works already initiated and the list of contractors with their corresponding contractual documents.
In addition, you must submit a copy of the purchasing processes of which the contractors of the works already started and that are in the process of completion were awarded.
Also, it will define the institutional prioritization for the construction of new correction and rehabilitation centers, and will determine their location according to the corresponding licenses or authorizations and in accordance with the criteria established by law.
