Mi Bus Contract Termination Due to Conflict of Interest

The director of Mi Bus, Carlos Sánchez Fábrega, stated that the contract is no longer in effect; after conversations with the provider, work was done on its termination, which is what they want to execute at this moment. He indicated that the contract was part of a public act and the information he has is that it was granted legally; however, upon assuming the position, he dispensed with it to carry out a new hiring. Sánchez Fábrega, in response to inquiries from deputy Neftalí Zamora, detailed that the contract was approved after the Covid-19 pandemic and consisted of the installation of surveillance cameras that, after a maintenance period, would be delivered to Mi Bus, which was indeed done. He added that the agreement with the company linked to Herrera's son was valid until February 2025 because he considered that it could be “done better,” for which reason he “changed the rules of the game.” “When I arrived, that contract was in progress; what was done was to terminate it quickly,” he assured. Sánchez Fábrega went to the Budget Commission to seek additional credits and transfers of appropriations for more than $4,960,000 for the payment of expired expirations, among them, the closure of the agreement with the company linked to Herrera's relative, an aspect that was highly questioned by the deputies since the same was created, according to data obtained from the Panama Buys portal, in the year 2017, which could indicate that it was created exclusively to provide service to the State, therefore, they rejected his request. During the appearance of engineer Carlos Sánchez Fábrega, director of Mi Bus, before the Budget Commission of the National Assembly, it came to light that the administration of Laurentino Cortizo awarded a contract to a company linked to the son of the current secretary general of the Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD), Balbina Herrera, which, according to the commissioners, represents a “clear conflict of interest.” “The problem here is that political influences are used to have that contract with the State; it is what we criticize and it corresponds to us to supervise because the conflict of interest is clear,” said deputy Manuel Samaniego. In addition, they have a surveillance system in the 19 existing paid zones in Panama to guarantee the security of users who daily use this means of transport. The director of Mi Bus pointed out that despite the departure of the company, the cameras have continued to operate normally, and at this time, they are buying the bandwidth they need to continue monitoring what happens inside the yards.