Odebrecht linked company gets direct contract

A $19 million direct contract in Colon to a partner company of Brazilian construction giant  Odebrecht at a time when the company has been fined $220 million for its bribery and money laundering  activities has sparked widespread protests.

The contract came from the Ministry of Housing (Miviot) for work in the province of Colón, where both companies form a consortium.

A technical report, which justifies the contract, says that the  Panamanian company CUSA has the qualifications  to be hired, but in revising the text, on page 4, the Miviot recognizes that the company is a member of a consortium  formed with Odebrecht

formed to handle the Colón rehabilitation  project, the same one for which the new contract was issued.

“It would have been logical if they had made a public contract. said Ramón Ricardo Arias of the Panama chapter  of Transparency International.

“Was a direct contracting to the Odebrecht partner, to give more money to Odebrecht to pay the fine? “said Arias

On  Thursday, August 3, the Minister of Housing, Mario Etchelecu. told  journalists that no project in Colón would have an addendum.