Behind the politics game and under the pretext of providing high-schools, elementary schools and community boards with self-owned transport means lie a 24-million-dollar business.
It is all about a massive purchase of 30-passenger buses by the current Juan Carlos Varela´s administration, made without tendering, which is being led by the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF), and the Ministry of education (Meduca).
Through these two entities, some 278 buses have been acquired in two years, representing 56.7% of the total acquired through dubious framework agreements, figure that has reached 490 units in the past two years and a half.
The framework agreement for this type of buses restricts the competition to only four companies, however, 92.8% of the purchase was in the hands of an only supplier: Bering Motors.
Part of the fleet has been assigned to legislators, corregimento representatives and mayors to play political in their electoral zones, while other part of it remains in elementary and high schools, or has been assigned to other entities such as municipalities, special secretariats and entities of the State, as is the case of Tocumen, S.A.
Both the MEF and Meduca ended up buying almost all of the buses from Bering Motors, linked to group EL Machetazo, whose owners have been identified as Juan Carlos Varela´s donor campaign donors.
The MEF bought 222 buses from Bering Motors, while the Meduca bought some other 47 buses from the same company.
Procurement experts claim that framework agreements are highly easily manipulable in favor of a specified supplier, regardless of whether it may offer the highest price during tenders.
"There are ways to manipulate tenders under the guise of availability on the date on which the purchase is issued. There is also a way to coordinate this so as to benefit a particular economic agent", said a former Director of Procurement.
The MEF, under Minister Dulcidio de la Guardia, spoke up to defend the purchase of buses.
Director of programming of investments of the MEF, Olmedo Arrocha, in a press conference, justified the framework agreement methodology of purchase currently in use while accused Panamá América of carrying out a negative campaign against this program of purchase of buses and defending the interests of one of the competing companies, which was not identified.
Arrocha sustained that it is a false affirmation that the government has tried to benefit a particular company with these purchases of buses and that what was done was simply to use a mechanism of purchase that was not implemented by Varela´s government.
However, he refused to reveal the details of the mass purchase of the reason why 92.8% of these purchases were in the hands of Bering Motors.
Within the framework agreement, Bering Motors competes altogether with the Toyota, Nissan and Mercedes Benz agents.
Arrocha took as an example the purchase that the MEF made in May 2016, of 138 Hyundai buses, for $ 9 million, contradicting their version.
Arrocha also said that that purchase was awarded to Bering Motors because they offered the lowest price, but then, among questions and answers, he affirmed that when this purchase was made, the company hired was the only that had availability. There is no price competition.
He also stressed that the MEF only makes the purchase requisition by means of a General Agreement, but that it is the General Directorate of Public Procurement which assigns the purchase at the lowest price offered at that time. "This is the methodology that the three past Governments have used", he said.
Arrocha did not refer about the buses purchased by the Meduca and others, and did not specify how at least 222 buses purchased by the MEF have been assigned.
He would only report that 100 buses have been delivered to schools and community boards, which "have benefited at least 100 thousand Panamanians".
Arrocha said that the MEF will continue with the program of provision of buses to schools and community boards.
Meanwhile, the former Minister of this ministry, Frank de Lima, pointed out that never before has this entity acquired this number of buses of the recent past government.
"During our Administration we managed the program that was called Program of Municipal Development (Prodem) during which we purchased pick-ups, dump trucks and buses, I think.” But never those numbers", said the former Minister.
