Valderrama includes his relatives and friends in State payroll
Legislator Adolfo "Beby" Valderrama not only has been linked to companies that would have won big business with the Government, but has also managed to get into the public payroll his brothers, sisters-in-law, cousins and friends. All of them with a good salary and in key positions in the administration of Juan Carlos Varela.
Valderrama includes his relatives and friends in State payroll
Legislator Adolfo "Beby" Valderrama not only has been linked to companies that would have won big business with the Government, but has also managed to get into the public payroll his brothers, sisters-in-law, cousins and friends. All of them with a good salary and in key positions in the administration of Juan Carlos Varela.
Panama América revealed this week the companies that the Legislator would have supported with high-cost contracts from the administration of Ricardo Martinelli and now President Varela, including a network of companies headed by Coremusa, which is owned by a family member.
Coremusa, Offi Hogar and Suplidora Completa received almost 100% of the budget allocated to Valderrama who he had managed in the previous administration, when the panameñista party was part of the Alliance of Government.
The Legislator would have managed more than $3 million through the Community Board of Bella Vista, run by his friend Ricardo Domínguez.
This is how the contributions were been transferred to the Fund for Social Investment (FIS) and then the Programme of National Assistance (PAN), which always featured the same names: Coremusa, Offi Hogar and Suplidora Completa, three companies of the same business group. They were all purchases made on behalf of the population in need of the 8-7 electoral sector.
This network of companies would have also been re-activated in the Government of Juan Carlos Varela, which has repeatedly achieved direct agreement contracts in key institutions for Legislator Valderrama: National Lottery, Ministry of Security, Meduca, Ministry of the Presidency and the Institute of Legal Medicine, among others.
Valderrama would also be behind the Pumper S.A. company, which in the first six months of the Government of Varela has signed seven contracts for more than $3.5 million for the collection and incineration of wastes from hospitals under the instruction of the Ministry of Health. Pumper would have also been granted the contract of incineration of the drug seized at all levels of security, using an incinerator operating in the city of Aguadulce.
But Valderrama´s influences were also sufficient to be allowed to appoint his relatives. (See picture).
No more excuses
For lawyer Miguel Antonio Bernal, in Panama we cannot continue to allow neither more excuses nor uneven criteria when it comes to investigating different cases of corruption that have been denounced.
Bernal said that so far in our country we are witnessing what is known as selective justice, that would get some investigated while not others.
"I believe, as a citizen, that no one can stand above the law," said Bernal.
In his view, selective justice will continue, since the current authorities are its main beneficiaries.
"It seems to me that there should be greater citizen participation and demand against corruption; If the layman citizen does not complain at all, does not take action and allows and accepts these things, it will be very difficult to produce the changes that we all require", said Bernal.