The president of the Bolivian Highway Administration (ABC), Henry Nina accused former president Evo Morales of lying on Monday. The official assured that he never asked to speak with the head of the MAS, as the former president declared on Saturday, about the payment of Bs 18.6 million for the award of the Sucre-Yamparáez highway to a Chinese company. In addition, he demanded the pro-government deputy Héctor Arce, to present evidence, otherwise, He warned against taking legal action against him for “damaging his dignity.”
The president of ABC and nine officials are accused of receiving a bribe of Bs 18.6 million so that they direct the contracting of the services of the Chinese company Chec, for almost Bs 500 million for the construction of the highway in the department of Chuquisaca.
Nina announced the start of audits of all award processes in this and past administrations. “I want to say with sincerity, with all affection, with humility, our partner Evo, we have always coordinated directly in difficult moments, he knows it, and when saying that I looked for a private meeting, it is a lie, I did not send second or third parties,” he said at a press conference and declared himself “disappointed” in Morales.
The former president said over the weekend that last year he had warned Luis Arce about corruption at ABC and in the Ministry of Public Works. He recalled the case of Santos Ramírez, who was imprisoned and convicted of corruption.
The Minister of Justice, Iván Lima warned that this complaint does not handle the timeline correctly. He noted that last year, when the MAS leader supposedly made the warning, the tender for the highway section was not even awarded. There was a call, but it was declared void, so Morales’ complaint does not close, said the minister.
Morales also assured that the Minister of Government, Eduardo del Castillo, tried to communicate with him.l for another complaint of corruption. The aforementioned replied: “The last time I spoke with the former president was on January 23 of the current year, we had a public meeting that the media knew about,” he said.
The Construction Chamber of Santa Cruz denounced that the ‘bribery case’ explains why the Government and ABC choose to hire Chinese companies, and relegates the Bolivians.
“For many years we have been denouncing foreign companies. from one way to another ABC has always left Bolivian construction companies out of the question. Well, we already know the reason, the bribery,” said the general manager of the Santa Cruz Construction Chamber, Javier Arze.
“It is a shame that an institution like ABC, which is one of the largest contractors, has given priority to these foreign companies and has left aside the Bolivian ones. Chinese companies left the works half done, they had quality problems, they do not respect the country’s labor laws and they have problems because they are not paid. That has hurt the national business community a lot and it is unfortunate,” said the builder.
Chec has a small office in La Paz, located in a building in the south zone. This medium visited the facilities, there was no one. Neighbors and the concierge of that building commented that they have a secretary and three accountants, who have not appeared in the place since last week.
“A national company puts its guarantees, we talk about all its assets, infrastructure and machinery. Until before the government of Evo Morales, the country was building with Bolivian companies that were associated, generally, with Brazilian ones”, he said.
