Negative vibes for new Odebrecht jackpot

THE NEWS that the scandal-plagued Brazilian construction company Odebrecht is on the verge of receiving yet another multi-million  contract from the Panama government has raised concerns among those concerned  with  the seeming continued endorsement of corruption

After hearing  that the consortium formed by Odebrecht and the Spanish  FCC company  obtained the best score in the tender to build a branch line of  the Panama Metro Line 2

Olga De Obaldía, director of  the Panama Branch of Transparency  International -Fundación Libertad Ciudadana- said that it  what has happened was ” surprising and demoralizing “

On Thursday, November 1 Odebrecht became the virtual winner to build this branch, presenting a proposal of $ 102,938,604.

The Brazilian construction company has been in the public eye for the worldwide multi-billion bribery scandal which has led to the downfall and jailing of political leaders across Latin America.

De Obaldía said that she has followed how this company generates economic activity, “acting as if it could erase the patrimonial injury to the State, from the scheme of organized crime that it used to work “.

She  added that the company ” has not faced justice nor returned everything stolen.”

” It is true that there is an agreement between the Office of the Attorneys General of Panama and Brazil, which involved receiving the statements[ of corruption schemes but the company continues being hired, ” she said.

For De Obaldía, “it was the price of biting the bitter pill of the agreement with the attorney general’s office to receive information, but the objective was to know the whole truth and punish the guilty .”

For his part, Juan Diego Vázquez, an independent candidate, said that the issue of disabling companies has not been discussed in the National Assembly. ” How are we going to talk about rehabilitating someone if we have not started by condemning or punishing him in the first place?” said, Vázquez.

He said that Odebrecht is trying to ensure that this big project is for them and stressed that the National Assembly has not discussed a series of proposals to achieve more transparency.