A reputation heading for the garbage heap

From the sidelines

Nine months after taking office, the scandal plagued rule of Mayor Bosco Vallarino seems to be heading, for the garbage chute.

Already a target of media, cartoonists, fellow councilors and citizens who have followed his antics since, during the election, he flung his substantial body around in imitation of a dance on the steps of the Electoral Commission offices, he has now received broadsides from Eldis Sánchez, director general of Public Contracting, Vice President Juan Carlos Varela, and Minister of Trade and Industry, Roberto Henriquez
The message from Sánchez, director general of Public Contracting, if followed means the nixing of the purchase of 51 garbage trucks by the Municipality.
Sanchez sent a legal opinion to the Mayor’s Office stating that the purchase must be put out for bid because it exceeds the amount of $3 million.
In his four-page letter, Sánchez said the Republic "does not endorse" the contract for the purchase of trucks, so that means it can’t go ahead..
He also asked the municipality to rethink the purchase so that it adheres to current legal procedures.
The report was copied to Comptroller Gioconda Bianchini, Bosco Vallarino, and Ramón Ashby, president of the Municipal Council of Panama.
Sánchez sent the report a day before Vallarino was expected to present a proposal before the City Council to approve the purchase of the trucks, which are needed to expedite garbage collection in the metro area.
The government has hired four companies at a cost of $2.7 million to help alleviate the city’s garbage woes for the next three months. Sánchez said that action should give the city enough time to put out bids for the trucks.
When the government announced a four team task force to solve the immediate garbage problem, his Worship was not invited.
Vice President Juan Carlos Varela has also said that the trucks should be purchased through the government’s competitive bidding process.
And a warning came from Minister of the Presidency, Jimmy, Papadimitrius to the mayor’s administration over the garbage collecting problem
Now Minister Henriquez, says there is no reason for there to be a garbage crisis, as there is landfill for this purpose.

The minister also recalled that for years the possibility of hiring companies to recycle waste has been bandied about. . In this case the cost for garbage pickup would be lower because garbage could be transformed into profit.

He added that the role of government is to ensure that the problem " does not happen again."
In this case he reiterated that the Executive will intervene if it is found that this issue has a solution.

He also urged the mayor to make a management review and assessment of results. As a cartoon in La Prensa indicated recently, the Mayor has already been doing a review of his own problems, from scandals concerning checks, to the Christmas Charade including no-bid contracts to acquaintances and relatives of staff, to his pay being garnisheed to pay for a libel award to the former mayor for slander during the election campaign. And of course, his forgetting to mention his US citizenship when he filed his papers to run for election.
Many believed he was elected by default, as his opponent, Bobby Velasquez was leading in pre-election polls until a story (now scotched) circulated that he had received $3 million as a PRD member from a now convicted swindler. The poll figures reversed, and in spite of the scandal surrounding his non declaration of citizenship, he tumbled into office.