Criminal complaint presented over Christmas lighting

A criminal complaint to investigate the allocation of funds for the Christmas lighting of parks in the Municipality of Panama was presented by the lawyer José Moncada Luna, representing the citizen Heraclio Bustamante.

Moncada Luna said that in this case the Public Ministry must investigate possible acts of corruption in the process of installing Christmas lighting.

He said that in the case the mayor’s office, headed by José Luis Fábrega, made a direct contract for the installation of Christmas lighting when a public tender should have been made to choose a suitable company to carry out the works.

“Mayor José Luis Fábrega directly assigned the realization of the Christmas lighting to a company, when he could have called a public tender since the beginning of this year and avoid a situation of haste,” Bustamante added.

Bustamante stressed that it is suspicious that when Christmas was two months away, the authorities of the Municipality remembered that they had to light the parks of Panama City.

The lighting of 33 sites in the district of Panama had a cost of $2.9 million and was assigned to the company Contraseñas S.A. However, after its installation, harsh criticism arose from the public regarding the quality of the work carried out and the amount of the contract.