Government business “friend” gets juicy contracts
ITALY ONCE AGAIN figures in published stories of unannounced flights by President Ricardo Martinelli and friends, followed by healthy government contracts.
La Prensareports that The Consortium IBT Group, received cabinet approval on Tuesday, December 20, of a contract worth more than $125 million with the Social Security Fund for supply of equipment and services for dialysis.
The contract,with a duration of 52 months, “extendable,” was signed on November 9 with Consortium IBT Medical Outsourcing Services, SA
IBT Group has been awarded several contracts worth millions in Panama, such as building hospitals, for $386 million, and $23 million for the construction in La Chorrera of one of the markets of the Cold Chain.
IBT last made the headlines when its company Laser Cards Latin America, SA, produced 600,000 defective passports through a direct contract in 2010.
La Prensasays that at least three sources have confirmed that Martinelli, several of his friends and the Minister of Public Works, Federico Suarez traveled without warning in the company's private plane to Italy in August, from Dominican Republic, where had arrived earlier in the presidential plane.
In addition, Dominican news media, including Elsiglo21.com, reported last May that the president of IBT Group, Jose Ramon Brea, "has been seen several times at restaurants in Santo Domingo and Casa de Campo with Luis Ricardo Martinelli" a son of Ricardo Martinelli.
