Security Ministry under gun for $50 million cost overruns

THE MINISTRY OF SECURITY is the latest to come under the microscope for cost overruns, this time amounting to over $50 million.

 Security Minister, Rodolfo Aguilera, said on Thursday December 11, that his predecessor, Jose Raul Mulino, evaded his responsibility for the contracts signed during his leadership of the ministry and now under scrutiny.
“You tried to evade responsibility by saying that the Cabinet authorizes ministers to contract,” Aguilera told Radio Panama.
He explained that while it is true that the Cabinet gave the green light to the transaction, it is up to the appropriate minister to establish the terms, costs and obligations in contracts.
On December 4, the Security Ministry reported an alleged payment of cost overruns in the signing of contracts for the purchase of technological equipment, tear gas, insurance policies and upgrading of helicopters.
Aguilerasaid that the name on these contracts is the minister, but not the President or other members of the Cabinet.
He illustrated the situation with by the following example.
“It’s like I give a power to you so that you buy a bull cattle for breeding and give you $5,000, and you go and buy a castrated bull that is not good for the job, and do not pay $5000 but $1 0,000. And when I ask you to give an account you cannot come back and tell me ‘you gave me power and why am I responsible,’ ” Aguilera told Radio Panama.
Earlier, in an interview with La Prensa, Mulino challenged Aguilera to provide evidence of the alleged cost overruns.
He also said that each security establishment is responsible for the purchase of tear gas, except National Air Service (Senan), which does not use them, and the Institutional Protection Service (SPI), whose purchases are the responsibility of the Ministry of Presidency.
According Aguilera, tear gas was purchased “at a cost a third more than its real value.”