Italian company boss was asked for recognition to obtain Martinelli contract

THE PRESIDENT of Impregilo , Massimo Ponzellini , told Italian prosecutors that Valter Lavítola – on behalf of Panama’s president, Ricardo Martinelli, demanded an economical "recognition " tender  if the Metro construction project was awarded to his company says a La Prensa report

According to Ponzellini , the proposal was rejected , but Impregilo , which is part of the consortium that is extending the Panama Canal, agreed to build a hospital which would be donated by former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi , if they won the tender for the Metro .

The Metro construction project was not awarded to the Italians, but to Odebrecht which has won many contracts including the Cinta Costera and it extensions, and the refurbishing of Casco Viejo streets.
The hospital project also generated another episode with the Panama Canal works says La Prensa. Italian prosecutors intercepted a call from Berlusconi , in August 2011 to the president of Impregilo , to report that Lavítola that day had called six times to say that Impregilo hadnot announced the construction of the hospital , and Martinelli had paralyzed the company’s work on the Canal causing the company’s shares in the stock market to collapse.
Also, the Italian ambassador in Panama tried to get Svemark – the company that negotiated unsuccessfully the building of prisons in Panama – to donate the hospital, in order to unblock the negotiations of had come to a dead end with the government.
“Neither Martinelli nor the others involved in this story have answered a questionnaire sent to them last week to get their versions of the reports that are in the Italian files" says La Prensa.