$200,000 feast to mark agreement on aiding the poor

A  two-hour banquet at the Amador Convention  Center on November 30 to celebrate the delivery of the Bicentennial Pact”, aimed at aiding the disadvantaged cost Panamanian taxpayers nearly $200,000.

The menu included items unlikely to be included in the diets of Panama’s poor, like assorted sushi, salmon, shrimp tempura, crab meat, ceviche, Thai rice, beef slider canapes.

The banquet, hosted by President Laurentino  Cortizo was organized by the company Pompa SA, whose president is Carlos Mastellari. The company was hired directly by the Ministry of Culture, led by Carlos Aguilar.

The dinner cost the treasury $198,998 and 33 cents, according to data published in Panama Compra. With that money,  says La Prensa 1,666 poor people in the country could be helped with a $120 bond from Panama Solidario, the Government’s emblematic program to serve the most vulnerable people in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Pompa SA is the same company that organized the inauguration of Cortizo in July 2019, at a cost of $996,985.48.

Pompa SA was one of the companies that were part of the consortium of three companies that in 2015 won the tender for the decoration and catering of the Summit of the Americas events that took place in Atlapa, an event that cost $3.5 million and was led by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In addition, it was the one in charge of the decoration and dinner of the heads of state, foreign ministers, and other guests, who came to the inauguration of the Canal expansion in 2016. This event was also organized by the Foreign Ministry, and cost $ 352 thousand 498.

For the act of delivery of the report of the Bicentennial Pact, Cortizo’s proposal to close social, political and economic gaps and establish a reform to the State, Pompa hired an ambulance service from Saturday, November 27 to Wednesday, November 1 December, that is until one day after the event. The service cost $1,700.

In order to contract directly with the company, and thus omit the public bidding process, the Ministry of Culture brought out number 1 of article 79 of Law 22 of 2006 on public contracting, which allows resorting to the exceptional procedure, when there is no other a bidder. In Panama there are dozens of companies dedicated to organizing events.