Cinta Costera III audit after Varela pay off accusation

AFTER CLAIMS by a former adviser that President Juan Carlos Varela  had blocked an audit of a project built by the Odebrecht construction company, because he had received donations from the company,  the Ministry of Public Works announced  Friday, Feb.10 that it would cooperate with a “citizen’s audit”.

Minister of Public Works Ramón Arosemenahas invited representatives of Transparency International, the Panamanian Society of Engineers and Architects and the Panamanian Chamber of Construction to a meeting in his office next week to coordinate an audit of the Cinta Costera III project.

Arosemena stressed that he will make available “all the information that exists” in the Ministry of Public Works on the project.

Meanwhile as the gathering clouds of the  Odebrecht bribery scandal  threaten to burst over  the presidential palace  the Minister of the Presidency Álvaro Alemán said Friday  that he has received the authenticated copy of the list of donors to the election campaign of the President’s election campaign .

Alemán, who is also the second undersecretary of the Panameñista Party, said the names and the amounts donated will be published on the party’s  website

Varela pledged to reveal his list of donors after Ramon Fonseca, a founding partner of the Mossack Fonseca law firm  alleged that Varela has been protecting Odebrecht by preventing an audit of the Cinta Costera because he had received donations from the company.

The accusation was denied by an obviously stressed Varela during a hastily called press conference on Thursday evening.