Donated firetruck, ambulance recalled to D.C., sources say
By: Michael Neibauer
Examiner Staff Writer
March 31, 2009
The ambulance and firetruck mysteriously donated by the D.C. government to a beach town on the touristy north coast of the Dominican Republic apparently have been called home, The Examiner has learned.
A city hall official who asked not to be named told The Examiner on Monday that the vehicles, on their way to the Dominican Republic town of Sosua, had been ordered turned around. The same information was reported Monday on NewsChannel 8’s “NewsTalk” — host Bruce DePuyt cited Ron Moten, co-founder of the Peaceoholics, as his source.
Moten has said his organization arranged the contribution, which was authorized through a vague emergency rule quietly published March 20 by the D.C. Office of Contracting and Procurement. The vehicles are valued at a combined $340,000.
D.C. Attorney General Peter Nickles on Monday said he still wasn’t ready to comment on the bizarre gift to a town with which no District official claims any relationship. No one in the D.C. government acknowledges any role in the contribution.
“I think Peaceaholics does great work worldwide — and it’s gratifying to know that equipment is being put to good use,” Alan Etter, spokesman for the D.C. fire department, said in an e-mail to The Examiner.
But that is all Etter would say on the matter.
Numerous high-level fire officials have privately denied any knowledge of the donation. The responsibility for auctioning surplus supplies, including vehicles, falls on the contracting office, but all calls to OCP have been redirected to Nickles.
The Sosua-News reported Feb. 11 that a delegation from the District “arrived in Sosua [on Jan. 29] to officially hand over an ambulance and firetruck to the town’s mayor,” Vladimir Cespedes. The Sosua-News article goes on to say that the vehicles “will be transported by ship, and should arrive in Puerto Plata around mid-February.”
“The Americans will also send instructors to train paramedics and personnel from the fire department on how to use such modern equipment,” according to the article, first discovered by WUSA9.
It is unclear which D.C. officials traveled to Sosua.
Ward 3 Councilwoman Mary Cheh, chairwoman of the government operations committee, has called on Chief Procurement Officer David Gragan to explain how the donation happened.
