OPINION: A familiar stench in the air

The Minister of Public Works (MOP) finally spoke about the controversial tender for the fourth Panama Canal bridge. This work represents the second most expensive project of the Varela administration, only exceeded by line 2 of the Panama Metro. With the background of the hirings of the mega-projects of the last decade, it would be fair to expect the head of the MOP portfolio to understand  the inconvenience caused by the lack of transparency that has surrounded the bidding for this project, which has included the elimination of an evaluating commission, the appointment of another and a suspicious default in decisions and procedures, which distanced important bidders, with more complete technical offers, and lower prices than those proposed by the consortium selected as the winner.

Here you cannot accuse  the previous government or invoke some pretext that justifies the hurry and the opacity. We do not know why but it is well clear that this hiring has an unbearable whiff, that reminds us of the agenda pending the reorganization of public contracts …LA PRENSA, Jul.12