Witness implicates the president of ABC for receiving bribes; the Government doubts the version

The president of the Bolivian Highway Administration (ABC), Henry Nina, and former technical manager Cristian Mendieta were identified by a “protected witness.” He affirms that they received money from the representative of the Chinese company Harbor Engineering, to be awarded the Sucre-Yamparáez highway. The Government doubts the veracity of the report and Evo Morales sees “protection against corruption.”

According to the statement of this witness, to which EL DEBER had access, on March 4 of this year, around noon, “Mr. Zhengyuan” issued an invoice for 2% of the contract and then went to a bank in La Paz, together with his commercial director, to materialize the withdrawal of Bs 9 million.

He revealed that this procedure “occurred between 1:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m. Subsequently, Mr. Zhingyuan went with that amount of money to his home, and the equipment rental company came to issue a fictitious invoice for around Bs 9 million, which is 2% of the total credit of the minutes, and a 5.3% commission is charged for making this money effective, which corresponds to 3% of the ITE and 12.3% of the liquid commission for the company . Between 6:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m., he was at the hotel waiting for them with a memorial, so that later that money can be delivered directly to ABC officials, Cristian Mendieta and Henry Nina.”

Justice Minister Iván Lima stated: “I am not convinced that the protected witness is such. I think he is a accomplice of the fact. I will ask the judge of the city of Sucre to remove him from the status of protected witness because I am going to file a criminal charge against him”said the state dignitary.

The complaint of corruption in the ABC was presented by deputy Héctor Arce (MAS), one of Morales’ bishops in the Legislative. He pointed out, based on that testimony, that Mendieta was the one who contacted the Chinese businessman to modify some pages in the construction company’s proposal, when it had already been awarded. The former manager, like his lawyer, insists that they had nothing to do with this alleged deal.

Morales yesterday questioned that “those above” are not touched for the alleged collection of bribes in which this Chinese company is involved. He alluded to Lima’s statement in which he reported that neither Nina nor the Minister of Public Works, Égar Montaño, are being investigated.

“People who sold invoices, supposedly, are being investigated; but, if (the corruption) comes from above, that is not touched. I’m pretty sure this is to protect corruptionthat (the investigation) reaches those from below and not spill it over to others”, stated Morales, in his weekly program that is broadcast through the radio station Kawsachu Coca.

“There are responsibilities; there are national, departmental directories; there are responsible ministers who they have to lead this (but) since I heard your conference in Lima, I understood that there is a well-planned plan to defend corruption”Evo remarked and attributed these actions to the so-called “black plan” that would be in force against him, but in the context of the internal struggles that broke out several months ago in his party.

Deputy Alejandro Reyes, from the opposition alliance Ciudadana Community (CC) questioned the government’s anti-corruption policy. “They are not going to do justice with the officialists, what they do is injustice with the opponents, they have become accustomed to that”, he pointed out.

The head of the MAS bench in the Chamber of Deputies, Gualberto Arispe, is Morales’ other bishop in the Legislative. The representative asked President Luis Arce to take corrective measures and remove Nina of the Executive. “If Arce wants to save the country from these embarrassing events, he should remove them. The image of our government is affected”, insisted the Legislator.

The check’s
The La Paz Prosecutor’s Office found the three checks with which the China Harbor Engineering Company allegedly paid Bs 9,393,000, that is, half of the agreed bribe of Bs 18.6 million for the construction of the Sucre-Yamparáez highway. He established that the manager of the Chinese company, Jin Zhengyuan, paid a sole proprietorship to “launder” the money and for this reason he was arrested on Thursday after leaving the San Roque prison, in Sucre. He was transferred to La Paz.

This new complaint establishes that the sums of money invoiced by the sole proprietorship of Jesús Esteban Aguilar Suxor are related to Chinese companies: CCCC Second Highway Engineering Co LTD. (Bolivia Branch) and the Chec company, whose representative is Jin Zhengyuan.

In the detail it indicates that the sole proprietorship invoices, on February 26, the sum of Bs 9,393,000 for the rental of machinery and equipment in favor of the accused Jesús Esteban Aguilar Suxo. “This Chinese company, on March 4, 2022, issued three checks in favor of Aguilar Suxo for the same amount.

Aguilar Suxo pointed out that “Mr. Jin Zhenyung called me in February 2022 telling me that they had given him my number and he asked me if I could make him an invoice for the amount of Bs 9,396,000, according to that detail I prepare it. Then he told me that in the following days he would contact me. This is how it becomes effective on March 4, 2022. He calls me Mr. Zhengyuan, he tells me that we should cash the checks. When we met at Banco Bisa in El Prado, he gave me the checks, because they were in the name of his company”. With this information, for the Prosecutor’s Office it is confirmed that there was bribery, now it is necessary to resolve who was the person who received it.

This former official was the first to be summoned in Sucre along with the manager of the Chinese company Chec, Jin Zhengyuan, and both were sent to preventive detention in the San Roque prison, accused of the alleged bribery of Bs 18.6 million, agreed by the Chinese company Chec for the award of the double track Sucre-Yamparáez. Last week, a judge granted them house arrest. The Public Ministry keeps the investigation of this case open.

Other irregularity
The former technical manager of ABC, Cristian Mendieta, and his lawyer denounced that the qualifying commission for the Sucre-Yamparáez work was appointed throughe memorandums Henry Nina, which contravenes the regulations.

Mendieta revealed details of the procedure in her informative statement. He noted that, as a former technical manager, its function was to monitor the progress of work on the Sucre-Yamparáez route and that “at no time did he intervene in that bidding process.”

“I want to clarify that my dependents have been reported, who are the engineer Juan Carlos Hidalgo (this former official appears in photos taken by a ‘protected witness’ in a hotel in Sucre next to the Chinese Zhengyuan supposedly modifying pages of the tender) who resigned, and the engineers Carlos Rafael Chipana, Cosme Gudelio Agostopa, who reported directly to the engineer Juan Carlos Hidalgo, from the road conservation sub-management”.

It complements that all of them “have been members of the rating commission through the corresponding commission memorandums, a process in which I did not participate, and were appointed by the president of ABC, Henry Nina, and the person in charge of contracting, Hernán Palacios. In this way it is evident that I have no participation, and that they act in a particular and individual way. Even so, I add that I have not instructed to speak on my behalf, less with the representative of the Chinese company, Jin Zhengyuan, whom I do not know, “he said.

Prudencio Flores, Mendieta’s lawyer, explained that his client was ABC’s national technical manager, “of course based in La Paz. The contracting process for the Sucre-Yamparáez double track project had to start, develop and finish in the Chuquisaca ABC regional office. The Supreme Decree 181 and its regulations say that whoever appoints the person responsible for the contracting process is the regional head of the project site, in this case Hernán Palacios, who nominated the members of the place of execution, cannot appoint an official from Cochabamba, Santa Cruz and less from the national one”.

However, “that is where the name of Cristian Mendieta is supplanted for us, and it is made to look as if he had something to do with the qualification commission of the Sucre regional contracting process. There is no technical form, because he did not know or appoint those officials, because the one who made that appointment was Henry Nina, who with memorandums appointed the engineers Hidalgo and Chipana.