The news about the allocation of $41.3 million for consultancies in the 2019, 2020, and 2021 budgets of the Municipality of Panama, led by José Luis Fábrega, generated a statement from the capital commune that concerns responsibilities to the administration of José Isabael Blandón, but this in turn blames Juan Carlos Navarro.
Fábrega’s press release assures that “the current administration has not hired consultants” and, instead, they have “honored the payments of two consultants that were hired in the past municipal government.” The first (2015-2016), they say, corresponds to the diagnosis, design and technical specifications of the infrastructure project on Uruguay Street, for $1 million 16 thousand 607. The second corresponds to the service of the formulation of the District Strategic Plan, Local Policies and Local Territorial Planning Plan, (2017 and 2019), at a cost of $3 million 114 thousand 444.
Blandón responded on the subject on Twitter. “Of the 41 million, 3 correspond to 2 contracts tendered in my administration. Less than 10% of the total amount. This includes the payment of 2 million for the consortium in charge of doing the technical work of preparing the City’s Land Use Plan, already approved”. Deputy Mayor Raisa Banfield also intervened here: “Just to begin with, the contracts for the design and construction of works and Calle Uruguay and POT are not consultancies, they are contracts awarded after bidding processes. Consultancies are direct contracting for studies”.
In the statement, Fábrega also mentioned that in 2006, a period in which the PRD member Juan Carlos Navarro was in the capital’s commune, the services of a company were contracted for the collection and collection of taxes and that, at the time, the Comptroller’s Office instructed that The payments for this contract were made through line 171 (consulting services) of the income and expenses project. Five addenda were made to that contract, he explained, and the most recent was in 2020. Blandón also ruled on this part. “What I see is that it mentions the TX contract that comes from 2006 [período de Juan Carlos Navarro]. The same when I became mayor, that contract already existed, ”he pointed out.
TX, SA is the company in charge of collecting taxes. Although the press release mentions contracts from previous years, addenda and the object of the expense, it does not mention the amounts paid annually to that company for the “consulting services”.
“That is the same boilerplate excuse from any negligent government. The previous government is always responsible, never they, they never admit their faults,” citizen Roberto Goodrich wrote on Twitter.
Navarro has not spoken on this issue. The figures used for the consultancy note were provided by the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF).
