AS IN MANY contracts during the Martinelli administration, Panama got the short end of the stick with grossly inflated prices in a contract with an Argentine company.
The country paid as much as seven time the going price paid by other countries for digital mapping equipment.
The company Telespazio Argentina, is being investigated in that country for the alleged payment of bribes to Panamanian officials including former President Ricardo Martinelli.
According to research carried out in Argentina by Federal Prosecutor Franco Picardi, Telespazio delivered similar equipment to Costa Rica for $4.7 million and Paraguay for $3 million that it sold to Panama for $22 million.
The equipment is a digital mapping system that was part of a larger, $250 million deal that Panama signed with Finmeccanica, the parent company of Telespazio.
Bribery charges
Two Telespazio directors, Edgardo Nicolas De Gracia and Dario César Ventimiglia, have already been charged with paying bribes. They have been accused of funneling payments to the shell company Agafea Corp., which was created a short time before the contract was finalized.
According to the Argentine prosecutor, the payments were made through intermediaries.
Panama, Attorney General Kenia Porcell has been sent an Argentina request for judicial assistance.,
Her office is already compiling information about the contract.