OPINION: Bidding boondoggle puts  kids lives at risk

The third line of the Panama Metro is a state project, which will improve the quality of life for more than 500 thousand people who will benefit, directly and indirectly, from their services. The recent tender that awarded the work to a Korean consortium has been challenged by other participants, who have the right to be heard.

 However, Panama cannot accept the repetition of the new Children’s Hospital, whose construction has been postponed due to the multiplicity of resources and legal actions brought by the losers of the tender. This has caused a significant deterioration in the health of Panamanian children.

Situations like these are the result of an opaque and ambiguous public procurement regime, which facilitates all kinds of tricks. As if it wasn’t obvious, now more than ever, The public procurement law must be amended promptly to have clear rules, exemplary penalties for cheats, and as a result the compliance in time, price, and quality of goods and services acquired by the Panamanian State. Each day of delay and every penny of cost overruns represent lost lives and irreparable damage.