Panama’s Comptroller’s Office Returns the Laptop Contract Addendum to the Ministry of Education Without an Endorsement.
The Comptroller General, Anel Flores, returned without endorsement Addendum Number 1 to the $28.4 million contract signed between the Ministry of Education (Meduca) and IS Group, SA for the acquisition of 54,000 laptops intended for teachers in the public school system. The modification remains without endorsement while differences persist regarding the amount of equipment delivered to Meduca.
Panama’s Comptroller General, Anel Flores pictured below, has officially returned the laptop contract addendum to the Ministry of Education (Meduca) without an endorsement (refrendo). Without this mandatory signature, the contractual modification has no legal validity. The rejection stalls a controversial $28.48 million project to purchase 54,000 artificial intelligence-enabled laptops for public school teachers from the sole bidding provider, IS Group, S.A..
Key Details of the Stalled Addendum.
- Financial Increase: The addendum sought an extra $234,956 on top of the original contract value.
- Time Extension: It requested an extension of 75 calendar days to fulfill deliveries.
- Delivery Discrepancies: The rejection comes amid sharp discrepancies between the volume of computers IS Group claims to have delivered and the actual import numbers registered by Panama’s National Customs Authority.
Broader Fallout and Investigations.
The laptop procurement process has caused significant political friction in Panama, leading directly to the resignation of former Education Minister Lucy Molinar pictured below on one of the laptops.
- Official Auditing: The Comptroller’s Office is conducting a full, formal audit of the entire bidding process—expected to take less than a month and a half—to evaluate why 48 other interested companies withdrew, leaving only one bidder.
- Criminal Probe: Concurrently, Panama’s Public Ministry has launched a preliminary criminal investigation into the purchase after receiving an explicit request from Molinar before her departure to clarify the transparency of the administration. The contract and its stalled extension are now under the jurisdiction of the newly appointed Minister of Education, Ventura Vega pictured below.
Comptroller Anel Flores pictured below, kept his word: he did not endorse the addendum to the contract signed between the Ministry of Education (Meduca) and IS Group, SA for the purchase of 54,000 laptops for teachers. The addendum included a $234,956 increase in the contract value (which was originally set at $28.4 million) and a 75-day extension to the execution period. Without the comptroller’s approval, the addendum is invalid.
