Valderrama and Coremusa, contracts granted to a network of companies
Legislator Adolfo Valderrama could not deny his family link with the Coremusa company, which has become one of the main suppliers to the State of small purchases. It is a business that handles a lot of money and where political connections come to light.
- Redacción / @PanamaAmerica
- - Actualizado: 17/3/2017 - 09:24 am
Legislator Adolfo Valderrama could not deny his family link with the Coremusa company, which has become one of the main suppliers to the State of small purchases. It is a business that handles a lot of money and where political connections come to light.
The company concerned would have drawn up a whole structure from the last Government to compete for purchases that Legislator Valderrama executed through the gone-missing Funds for Social Investment (FIS) and then the Programme of National Assistance (PAN), today Directorate of Social Assistance (DAS). Today, the name of the Coremusa company has become widely aired within the Government of Juan Carlos Varela.
Official records and private sources reveal that Coremusa would be associated with other companies such as Ofi Hogar, Suplidora Completa, ViyaeroI, Falcon y Falcon, Inversiones y Finanzas, and Financiera Lux.
This would explain the business structure that was mounted to get all the million-dollar budgeted money that is executed by the office of Legislator "Beby" Valderrama between 2009 and 2013, using as a platform the Community Board of Bella Vista under the charge of his friend Ricardo Domínguez.
Official sources say that many of these companies would have been created merely to compete for the same purchase on several occasions, generating a fake competition. The processing method of purchase of FIS and PAN required only the presentation of three quotes to proceed with a direct purchase at the lowest bid. The audit and control system of the process did not seem to be rigorous, since it allowed a fake competition among companies of the same business group.
Through just nine direct purchases by FIS and PAN from Coremusa, during 2010 and 2011, some 449 thousand 898 dollars would have been paid for the supply of food bags, appliances and white line all of which was handled by Legislator "Beby" Valderrama on behalf of the poor, the disabled and the elderly of his electoral circuit 8-7.
In the same period, Coremusa´s twin company, Suplidora Completa received direct purchases for 115 thousand 789 dollars for the supply of musical instruments, stoves, mattresses and appliances.
The other company linked to this structure, Ofi Hogar S.A. also appears in the records of purchases executed by "Beby" Valderrama in the previous administration, when the panameñistas were part of the Government Alliance with Ricardo Martinelli. This company would have purchased 59 thousand dollars in mattresses and wheelchairs only through two purchases.
This structure of companies would have been revived in the Government of Juan Carlos Varela to make small purchases in public bodies, mainly the National Lottery, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Security, the Institute of Legal Medicine and the Caja de Seguro Social.
A report of the National Lottery (LNB), where the Secretary General, Carolina Arosemena is relative to Legislator Valderrama, revealed that only in 2015 43 direct purchases were awarded to Coremusa for the acquisition of appliances, office furniture, and other items.
The LNB refused to report their direct purchases made during year 2016 and year 2017 upto now. However, a report reveals that, to date this year, Coremusa, Ofi Hogar and Suplidora Completa have been granted 145 direct purchases by the Ministry of Security, Meduca, the Caja de Seguro Social, the Ministry of the Presidency, the Judicial Organ and the Institute of Legal Medicine.
In a statement, the Ministry of Health (Minsa) tried to unlink Legislator Valderrama from the hospital waste business. This Ministry ensures that it is "completely false" that Pumper S. A. has been hired by Minsa due to the intervention of any legislator, although he acknowledged that the contract had remained in effect only until two and a half months ago.
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