Poisonous suspicions about Panama legal security

The recent unexplained disbanding of the committee set up to examine bids for Panama’s $ 1 billion-plus fourth bridge across the canal has set alarm bells ringing in Panama’s Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Cciap).

“Legal security is a significant component of a country’s competitiveness, and determinant in attracting foreign investments, as is the case of Panama with a view to the need to generate new and growing sources of employment “, said  the Chamber in a Sunday, June 23 release calling for  the  safeguarding  of “our competitiveness as a country”.

The organization said that the Global Competitiveness Index 2017-2018, published by the World Economic Forum, reflected “how the country has lost competences in areas that were once pillars of our strengths “.

“Let’s be careful, let’s not transform the legal security index into one of the worst qualified, with public tenders of national interest that leave many questions unanswered serving  to arouse poisonous suspicions, ” said Cciap

“In this, the country needs to know, if there are, anomalies to investigate and demand responsibilities for them”, it added.

“What is the point of organizing these processes, establishing rules of the game supposedly characterized by seriousness and transparency; summon potential investors; standardize participation criteria, and appoint evaluating committees composed of prestigious professionals, if then, surprisingly, they turn out  the board to return to the point of departure from scratch?” the text reads.

The Chamber urges compliance with the rulings of the Supreme Court in relation to multi-million investment projects, whose execution depends on state officials with repeated failures of justice.