OPINION: Justified Suspicions

A company that confessed to having paid bribes to officials of Ricardo Martinelli’s administration (2009-2014) is now the government’s main contractor in the Bocas del Toro and Chiriquí provinces, with just over $ 170 million in a few contracts. Due to the unorthodox way in which government business is done in Panama, one cannot dismiss suspicions as if nothing happened. The officials of this government behave without prudence as if the suspicions were irrelevant. Well they are not. Behaviors like these don’t change overnight, but that doesn’t seem to matter either. Bagatrac would have paid at least $ 3 million in bribes. And now it has more than $ 170 million in contracts, only in two provinces, one of which is under the political control of a deputy who is not distinguished by his transparency, but by the negotiated in which he has been involved. To make matters worse, one of the contracts that this company received, for the not inconsiderable sum of more than $ 10 million, has been executed so badly that now its supposed arrangements must be fixed, as they are a complete improvisation. Conclusion: incompetence and justified suspicions. LA PRENSA, Apl.19