Odebrecht on Development Bank blacklist  for five years

The  Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) has put the construction company Norberto Odebrecht (CNO) on its blacklist over bribery cases and it will not be able to participate in projects financed by the bank until August 2024.  

The IDB Office of Institutional Integrity found that the Brazilian company paid bribes in two projects financed by the bank: the Tacoma hydroelectric plant in  Venezuela and the Highway Rehabilitation Program in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

The company paid bribes to officials to facilitate the achievement of the contract, to receive payments for the execution of the project or for addenda to the contracts.

According to the IDB investigation, the payments represented between 5% and 6% of the amount of the contracts, including addenda.

In the case of highway rehabilitation in Sao Paulo, Norberto Odebrecht would have paid around $380,000 between 2006 and 2008.

For the Tocoma hydroelectric plant, the evidence obtained by the IDB office indicates that between 2007 and 2015 illicit payments and transactions were made for up to  118 million, using a complex network of agents and offshore financial structures.

The sanction is the result of a resolution agreement negotiated between the IDB, IDB Invest and Odebrecht, on behalf of its subsidiaries CNO and Odebrecht Engenharia e Construção (OEC).

Once the sanction is completed, a period of 10 years for OEC and four for the CNO will be opened in which they will be able to participate in the projects financed by the IDB, only if they meet a series of conditions embodied in the agreement.

As part of the sanctions, Odebrecht must make contributions of $50 million as of 2024 to non-governmental organizations or charities that manage social projects in IDB member countries.

In addition, 19 subsidiaries of CNO including  Constructora Norberto Odebrecht of Panama, are subject to disqualification.

The Brazilian company confessed in 2016 the payment of bribes for a total of $788 million distributed in 12 countries, including Panama.