Panama's President to Submit Bill for Public Procurement Law Reform

Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino announced that in January, a bill seeking to radically change the terms of the current Public Procurement Law will be presented to the Council of Cabinet. Mulino also instructed all ministries to modify the Evaluation Commissions operating under the Public Procurement Law, as he believes they are not yielding results. The president warned that the next public contract coming to the Council of Cabinet will not be approved if the Evaluation Commissions have not been changed. Mulino expects the National Assembly to discuss the bill seriously and without unnecessary alarmism, with the aim of providing the country with a good Public Procurement Law. The head of state stated he is the first critic of the law, considering it only serves to generate corruption, block bidding processes, and extort to obtain contracts. As an example, the president cited the challenge to the bid won by a company for the construction of a road in Western Panama. 'That law is a perfect disaster, it's an adventure and it's torture to bid, even if it's for a bench in a park. Anything can happen,' he stated. 'It takes months to resolve a project that this country desperately needs,' he added.