Government Hired Construction Company - Printed Faulty Passports

(Panama-Guide) - Panama America- The company that made the Panamanian passports containing a number of errors was hired by the government to do the job without a public bidding process, and the company's specialty is in the construction industry. The company's name is Tarjetas Láser Latinoamérica, S.A., which was formed in October 2009 to "provide consultancy and project management, construction management, design, project planning and evaluation," according to information in the Public Registry. This company, in association with 3M, charged the government $575,874 dollars for 60,000 passport books, more than double what the government paid for the same number of passport books in February 2009.

The dignitaries of Tarjetas Láser Latinoamérica, S.A., are the same as the consortium IBT Group Panamá, S.A., to which the government awarded the contract for the construction of four hospitals and five clinics in the interior of the country for more than $250 million dollars.

Direct Contracts - Four months after the company was created, this company was awarded a direct contract by Luis Cortez, the Director of the Passport Office, to print 20,000 passport books at a cost of $196,000 dollars. Last August Cortez hired the company directly again, this time to supply 60,000 passport books.

Businessmen - The President of Tarjetas Láser Latinoamérica, S.A. is José Ramón Brea González, with Eduardo David Bensadon as the Treasurer and Daniel Toledano Querub as the Secretary. All live in Florida, USA. These entrepreneurs also represent the US/Spanish consortium IBT Group - comprised of the companies Carimex, IBT and Riogersa - that will construct the four new hospitals. Some of these companies have had problems with construction projects in the Dominican Republic and the Virgin Islands. In the latter, the Government suspended a contract to build a medical center for alleged breach of contract.

Government's reaction. "We are talking to see how long it will take to replace the passports, but meanwhile the documents are still valid," said the Minister of Government, Roxana Mendez. She said coincidentally the same error has been detected in the driver's licenses issued in 2006 and 2007. She also clarified that the Director of Passport has been on vacation for the past 15 days, which should not be interpreted as a sanction.

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Original Source: Panama-Guide
Date Retrieved: October 5, 2010