Odebrecht Panama claims no link to Brazil scandal

THE PANAMA office of the Brazilian construction company Norberto Odebrecht moved quickly on Friday June 19 to claim that “the investigations carried out in Brazil concern contracts with Petrobras made only in that country, which do not have any interference in the operation and implementation of projects in the other countries where we operate, including Panama. “

The company ruled out any scandal involvement of the works  already executed and the recent award of the contract for the second line of Metro de Panama, in which it partners with the Spanish FCC Construction and France’s Alstom.
The company argued in its statement that at the time the tender was awarded “we won through public solicitations satisfying all of the processes established by the laws of the country.”
In another statement to the media the company said: “The bidding process for line 2 was developed in strict compliance with Panamanian law, including the establishment of a top evaluation committee first level” and that the company “rigorously applied compliance for each of its contracts with a multidisciplinary team.”
The company therefore has not hinted at any possibility of revising an already awarded tender but whose contract has not been signed, reports La Prensa.
Odebrecht and FCC Construction was awarded the public tender in early June, after the Directorate General of Public Procurement dismissed a complaint filed by the Panametro consortium composed of companies from China and Spain.
This group argued that Odebrecht and FCC Construction did not meet the minimum technical requirements and warned of a possible conflict of interest as a member of the evaluation committee, had worked as a consultant for Odebrecht between 2010 and 2012..