Aldermen of the municipal council of the El Seibo province accused the mayor this Wednesday Leo Francis Zorrilla to commit a series of alleged irregularities in their functions within the local council.
The councilors allege that the mayor allegedly paid almost two million pesos to an engineer who has not worked on any project. They also accuse him of alleged overvaluation of truck purchases, of LED lamps, mismanagement of the fuel consignment in the city council trucks, of having named relatives without doing any work and the distribution of purchase orders to his relatives, of renting his own vehicle to the town hall for the sum of 25,000 pesos.
In addition, five of the members of the council of aldermen, who are made up of its president Luis Chalas, Lidia de Padua, Luis Díaz, Deny Mercedes and Miriam Arredondo, attribute to Mayor Leo Francis the repair of local roads that were budgeted by the council for almost 300,000 pesosbeing these works intervened by the Ministry of Public Works and of an alleged adulteration in the act, where the general budget of 2022 would be approved for an amount of 117,555,950.48 pesos.
Luis Chalas, president of the Chapter House, explained that “when they told him that this year’s budget was approved for them, it was a surprise, since supposedly they had not voted for it to be approved.”
“We immediately presented the minutes before all the corresponding institutions, communicating that this budget had not been approved by the councillors. In addition, we notify the mayor through a bailiff’s act warning him to refrain from executing the budget because it has not been approved,” Chalas said.
The official alleged that the children’s park, the council of councilors, together with the mayor, had agreed that it would be executed administratively, but that they found an alleged engineer (seibana and resident of Santo Domingo) who appears to have finished the work. .
“That engineer was disbursed consecutively, around two million pesos. The same engineer appears to have made the badge that was made at the Pavón Crossing exit, she was paid almost a million pesos when it was said that this was going to be done administratively, ”she said.
He added that, although the mayor submitted him to justice for defamation and insult, they will be reaching the final consequences, while he said that they hired a lawyer to take over the case.
Mayor’s reaction
Faced with these accusations, the mayor Leo Francis Zorrillatold Diario Libre, that this is because during his administration he began to take a series of measures that have to do with the “institutionality and transparency that the city council has”, while saying that “his first decision was to cancel 172 bottles “that they were charging without working in the town hall.”
“That generated a conflict at the end of 2020. As an institution we were in last place in transparency, now El Seibo occupies fifth place and it has been thanks to our management, because dark things are not being done as they are used to working in the city council”, declared Zorrilla.
The mayor alleged that the council has been recognized by the Chamber of Accounts, the General Directorate of Ethics and Government, for Public Purchases and Contracting, among other institutions. He explained that this is due “to the transparency with which one hundred percent has been working.”
He specified that the Government, as it has trusted in his management, has granted him the sum of 18 million pesos for the purchase of yellow machinery, but that the council of councilors opposes the sum being used.
“This is because we have taken away privileges, such as fuel, aid and payroll of people who did not work. We have come to change all that and we have been taking measures for 22 months that have brought internal conflicts, because they were used to blackmailing the past authorities, but not me,” said the mayor.
He assured that “if in all this time during his administration he had been stealing from a government that does not want anything with corrupt people, he would be in prison”, while saying that he does not understand why the councilors do not bring him to justice, as he did. , who filed a complaint “against those irresponsible people who live by defaming him and trying to deceive people in the media.”
Leo Francis Zorrilla He said that they are accusing him of falsifying an act, but that the mayor’s office does not make that type of document and explained that these documents are made by the council and the secretary, alleging that his signature does not appear in that act, but that of the councilors.
“All the minutes must be authorized by the president of the council in the presence of the secretary before signing it, because my signature does not appear in part and I do not have to sign documents. Those documents are given to me by the council,” he said.
He assured that he has been working in accordance with the law and the administrative procedure, for which he understands that those who are acting against the law have been the councilors, who stated that “they have taken actions that have nothing to do with the execution.”
He added that the mayors have a transportation premium and he has 25,000 pesos that covers fuel costs, oil change and any damage to the vehicle.
“That was approved by the councilors in the 2021 budget, so that all the expenses of my vehicle are covered, that is not a vehicle rental, it is a transportation premium like all mayors have and I have 25,000 pesos available for those expenses,” explained the official.
