OPINION: Counting the cost of bribery

After six addenda with the Brazilian construction company Norberto Odebrecht, the Tocumen airport administration has decided to incorporate the subcontractors as part of the strategy to finally complete the project, after five years of delay. The idea is to ensure that the accounts are duly settled for all parties, including the State. The final cost of the work exceeds $900 million, a sum that does not include the income not received by the air terminal because of the delay in the delivery of the project.

What should be the lessons of this contract, and other mega projects such as the City of Health in which the main contractor has acknowledged that he paid gigantic bribes to obtain these works?

The State cannot contract with corrupt companies. He who pays a bribe to manipulate a tender is willing to obtain any advantage of the work he builds, at the expense of state property and taxes of Panamanians. We are on time for the new public procurement law to contemplate the disqualification of corrupt companies and the most severe sanction possible. The government must exert its force in the best interest of all Panamanians.-LA PRENSA, Dec.2