Comptroller urged to nix Odebrecht contracts

A GROUP of prominent Panama citizens have urged the country’s Comptroller, to refuse to endorse two recent contracts with construction giant Norberto Odebrecht, SA, after the scandals of corruption involving the directors of the company in Brazil and around the world.

 In a letter to Comptroller Federico Humbert citizens Jose Chen Barria, Sandra Escorcia, Bolivar Pedreschi, Jorge Eduardo Ritter, Roberto Brenes, Ricardo Bermudez, Fernando Aramburu Porras and Thomas Herrara, among others, asking “refuse endorsement contracts “in the bids for Metro Line 2 and urban renewal of Colon
“It is an internationally known that the president and other senior executives and directors of the Brazilian company Constructora Norberto Odebrecht are imprisoned in Brazil for the alleged involvement of the company in a major financial scandal made against the company Petrobras,” it says.
Contracts Metro line 2 for $1.857 million and urban renewal of Colon for $537 million were awarded to consortia in which Odebrecht is the major player.
The signatories of the nine-point letter enumerate the financial risks facing Odebrecht and which to date have lost Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s Investment Grade, along with bonds of the company falling in value in international financial markets Also there is the risk that the public prosecutor could order precautionary measures against managers, executives and representatives of Odebrecht in Panama