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Alcatel and Taiwan Investigate
Corruption in Costa Rica
In an
statement published on the
Alcatel worldwide website,
Alcatel tells the world the
situation in Costa Rica.
On their website, Alcatel
reiterates that its policy is to
conduct its business with
transparency, following laws and
regulations, both locally and
internationally.
Alcatel tells that it
established on October 4, 2004,
an internal team to conduct an
inquiry regarding its operations
in Costa Rica.
"The first conclusions of this
inquiry have confirmed that
local consultants may have acted
in violation of their
contractual obligations with
Alcatel. These clearly forbid
the consultants from offering
promises or give any undue
pecuniary or other advantage to
any public official for any
purpose, which may contravene
any applicable laws. "
The French telecommunications
firm says, it has been recently
revealed that the president of
Alcatel Costa Rica violated the
Alcatel Group's Code of Ethics,
which is enforced across the
entire company. This employee,
who had been immediately
suspended, is now being
terminated.
The company, who reserves the
right to take further legal
action to seek appropriate
remedies, pursues its internal
inquiry, and will fully
cooperate with local
authorities.
Despite these difficult
circumstances, Alcatel has asked
its employees to continue to
perform their duties to support
our customers in maintaining
quality of service to the Costa
Rican telecom network.
In a separate action, the
Taiwanese Ministry of Foreign
Affairs (MOFA) is studying Costa
Rica scandal about reports that
MOFA had given Miguel Angel
Rodriguez us$200,000 in 2001 and
that the embassy gave him the
same amount in 2002
MOFA spokesman Michael Lu said
that Taiwan would not get
involved in Costa Rica's
judicial procedures. He said the
government offers aid to allies
through mutual negotiations and
that the foreign ministry would
try to understand the
allegations
A spokeswoman for the embassy in
Costa Rica told the Taiwan
Central News Agency that the
embassy "had no information"
about the alleged donations.
"The ministry is trying to
understand the reports. Our
country offers aid to our allies
through mutual negotiations.
These aid projects primarily aim
to help our allies' national
development," Lu said.
Opposition officials in Costa
Rica have called for the country
to sever diplomatic ties with
Taiwan after news about
Rodriguez's alleged acceptance
of the donations broke.
Answering questions about the
demand, Lu said, "We would not
interfere into another country's
domestic politics."
Former Alcatel
Manager and Servicios Notariales
Lawyer Arrested
Edgar Valverde, who
was fired last week as manager
of the French telecom Alcatel in
Costa Rica was detained
yesterday in connection with the
ICE-Alcatel scandal.
Valverde was on his way to
testify before a Legislative
Assembly committee investigating
the payment of millions of
dollars in kickbacks, allegedly
to allow Alcatel rights to
400,000 cellular telephone lines
in a contract worth
us$149.000.000 dollars with the
Instituto Costarricense de
Electricidad (ICE)
Valverde is accused of having
paid out kickbacks. His accuser,
Guido Silbaja, said he had
received us$196,000 dollars in
hush money from Alcatel.
The French firm iss suspected of
having made millions of dollars
in payments to intermediaries to
gain access to the market for
some us$230 million dollars in
sales of mobile telephones and
equipment.
Also, yesterday, in a separate
action, police arrested Luis
Adrián Quirós Carmona, lawyer at
Servicios Notariales Q.C.
located in San Ramón de
Alajuela, the law firm that
received us$14.000.000 from
Alcatel for distribution to
former ICE directors and
employees.
Servicios Notariales also
donated money to the
presidential campaigns of
president Abel Pacheco and
Rolanda Araya.
Last night Quirós was in the
custody Fiscalía de Delitos
Económicos in San José, awaiting
a judge's decision on his fate.
Fourth Child Abuser Arrested
Yesterday, the Unidad Contra la
Explotación Sexual (UCES) of
Ministerio de Seguridad Pública
arrested a fourth man who is
accused of abusing at least 45
minors. The arrest was made in
Hatillo 3, a barrio south of San
José.
The suspect, identified only by
his last name Dávila, is tied to
a group who abused minors in
Costa de Pájaros de Puntarenas
and in El Carmen de Guadalupe,
Goicoechea.
Dávila, who is 38 years old,
joins a 40 year old mathematics
professor hwo was arrested on
September 8, a 42 year old
systems engineer who was
arrested on October 1, where
police found child pornography -
fotos and videos - of minors as
evidence during a raid of his
residence, and a 19 year old
street huckster, who is believed
to be the recruiter of the
minors. Dávila is believe to be
the person to transport the
minors to the the professor and
engineer.
The first three arrested are
presently in jail under
preventive detention, while
Dávila is awaiting a judge's
decision if he will spend time
in jail while the proseuctor's
office investigates.
Agriculture and Industry Slow
Down
The amount of agricultural and
industrial goods -not including
the high-technology sector- is
growing this year, but at a
slower rhythm than in 2003,
according to the Monthly
Economic Activity Indicator,
which shows the variations in
the amounts of goods and
services produced in Costa Rica.
The agricultural sector grew 2.7
percent last August, as compared
to the same month in 2003,
confirming a de-acceleration
that started last year and that
also involves the industrial
sector, which grew 2 percent.
Citrus Sector Likely to Benefit
As a
result of the hurricanes that
devastated the crops in Florida,
the Costa Rican citrus sector
expects increased exports and
higher prices for its
production.
Carlos Odio,
of the local Ticofrut -the
largest Costa Rican exporter of
orange juice concentrate-
forecast a rise from $0.56 to
$0.95 per pound by the end of
this year.
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