Odebrechts sidewalks deal challenged

 PANAMA  mayor  José Blandón whose plan to spend $99 million on sprucing up some of  the city’s sidewalks was originally warmly received,  is now finding support cooling, as the focus has shifted from what needs to be done, to who’s going to do it, with the name of Odebrecht casting fresh shadows  over the bidding process.

Two consortiums that participated in the tender for the study, design and construction of sidewalks and parking in downtown areas of Panama City presented complaints Monday. March 28  against the opinion of the evaluation committee.

One of the complaints was lodged by the consortium Centralvías EP, consisting of Colombian construction company Conalvías and the Panamanian firm Centralmix.

In a first assessment, the commission had assigned the highest score to this consortium, but the Mayor ordered it to reconsider and   the consortium was bumped to second place, allowing the  scandal plagued Brazilian firm Odebrecht to achieve the highest score, raising fresh  concerns over the insider track status of Odebrecht which has received over $9 billion in state  contracts from successive administrations, including  over $2 billion from the Varela government.

Officials have said the decision to reconsider was made because the committee failed to take some important details into account  The same day  the  first evaluation report was received,  March 15, a resolution signed by the Mayor ordered a new analysis, arguing that some aspects of the proposal of Centralvias had not been taken into account, such as obtaining the land for the parking lots.

With Odebrecht’s widely  reported links to international corruption, the move set off local alarm bells,