One of the shareholders of Ropalma is Hilda Cristina Jackson Mallol, mother of Estrada Jackson. These are Rogama SRL, that benefited received contracts for RD$133.9 million from 2018 to 2020 Distribuidora Ropi, SRL, with RD$134.2 million in contracts also during the same period Ropalma SRL, a company that was awarded a contract for RD$95.4 million in January 2020 and Inversiones Zwaziland, with contracts for RD$345.9 million between 20. In its coverage on the Alicia Ortega, Acento names the four lead beneficiary companies.
Inflation was not a factor, as in 2018 it stood at 3.5% and in 2019 it had dropped to 1.81%.Īs reported on the TV episode, the common thread among four of the 10 linked companies that won the last bidding in January 2020 is Army Sergeant José Miguel Estrada Jackson, who is an avid bowler, according to El Informe. Ortega reports that the increase in the cost of the meals provided happened at a time when the jail population had increased by less than 5%, going from 25,898 to 27,165 inmates.
The journalist identified as beneficiaries at least four companies that had ties among themselves and ties to attorney general Rodríguez Sánchez who held the position from 2016 to 2020. Ortega revealed that government procurement for inmate meals tripled from RD$299 million in 2014 to more than RD$1 billion by March 2021. Rodríguez already faces charges for corruption in office in other instances and is in preventive custody in Najayo Jail. The findings link several meal provider companies to former Attorney General Jean Alain Rodríguez himself. Nevertheless, Ortega indicates that when Jean Alain Rodríguez Sánchez was appointed attorney general during the Medina administration in 2016, the rules for contracting that originally had prevailed were changed and the volume of contracting escalated considerably. While in the past the meals were provided by the governmental Comedores Económicos, in 2014 then Attorney General Francisco Domínguez Brito opened up the contracting to meal providers located in the jail communities to have savings and improve quality. The Attorney General Office is in charge of the jail operations in the Dominican Republic. Investigative journalist Alicia Ortega presented evidence of close ties of major meals suppliers to jails in the Dominican Republic to companies related to former Attorney General Jean Alain Rodríguez.