A growing outcry  over a $168 million Social Security  (CSS)  contract  awarded  to a Mexican-Panama consortium for the storage and delivery of  medicines has put Director Enrique Lau Cortes in the center of a political and media storm 

"For many years, I have not answered gossip," says the Director.

 Panama America controlled by ex-president Ricardo Martinelli has defended the award of the contract to a consortium made up of two companies: the Panamanian PMG Logistics Corp. with no history  in the field and Mexico Intermed with a spotty performance record  and  corruption allegations on its home turf

The Martinelli publication says  the  four-year contract, "would help improve the availability of medicines in favor of thousands of Panamanians.”

The newspaper said that the benefited consortium “was the only proponent that, … complied with the requirements and requirements of the statement of objections, obtaining a total of 97 points of the chosen weighting methodology ”.

The arguments of the Martinelli newspaper came to light amid an avalanche of criticism emanating from social networks and newsgroups, which strongly questioned the contract, due to the scandals surrounding one of the companies in the consortium. winner: Intercontinental de Medicamentos SA de CV (Intermed).

Irregularities 

In February - the director of the National Institute of Neurology and Neurosurgery in Mexico was dismissed for "incompetence ... since the health and lives of patients were put at risk daily," Mexican media reported.

The decision came when medical personnel denounced the official to the Mexican president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, because Intermed and another company breached a contract of more than $27 million for the delivery of medical and pharmaceutical supplies, but they were charged to patients, reported the Aristegui Noticias.

This year another complaint against the company was added. The head of the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) of the Mexican Ministry of Finance, Santiago Nieto Castillo presented information about this and other companies in the health system that has been identified as having irregularities.

Castillo revealed that, in total, Intermed has benefited from contracts totaling more than $ 290 million - between 2012 and 2019 - by different Mexican state agencies. And despite this, its financial reports reflect tax losses of about $18 million.

Other complaints against Intercontinental Medicines include the delivery, along with two other companies, insulins that "do not meet" the necessary standards for medical treatments.

The insulin used by public hospitals in Guanajuato was classified as " pirate " by local parliamentary deputies since doctors from that region concluded that "it did not meet the quality characteristics of quality and the patients were not giving the results that were expected with the application of this medicine ”. But despite warnings, the company acquired another direct contract for more than $3.4 million in Mexico.

Despite the defense of the contract, criticism was mounting as the scandals in Mexico of the winning company were disclosed. Panama America, while defending the contract in favor of the winning consortium, deliberately refrained from disclosing compromising information from Intercontinental de Medicamentos, SA de CV, reports La Prensa

The attack by Panama America focused on Distribuidora Disur, which, was disqualified from the tender for the CSS.