Ex-Minister to trial in $47.5 million overpricing case

Panama’s former Minister of Public Works, in the Marinelli administration, José “Pepe” Suárez and Jorge Luis Sánchez have been called to trial for alleged overpricing in the improvement and expansion of the Domingo Díaz road, according to a source linked to the Judicial Branch.

Suarez is accused of a crime against public administration. At the same time, it requests provisional dismissal for Crescencia Pomares and María Eugenia González reports La Estrella.. 

The investigation of the case originated as a result of a complaint from the comptroller Federico Humbert who gave the Public Prosecutor an audit that calculated the overpricing of the work at $47.5 million.

According to the audit, the price of the work should have been $ 190 million instead of $ 237.5 million.

The former Minister of Public Works has also been investigated for the construction of the La Chorrera-Arraiján highway and for the Blue Apple case, related to the alleged payment of bribes by contractors to operations during the last administration of the government.

In addition,he  it received provisional dismissal r the case of the purchase of dehydrated food through the extinct National Assistance Program (PAN).