General Compressure of Panama Anel Flores on Monday announced That would be to submit a criminal complaint against Panama Ports Company (PPC), a subsidiary of Hutchison Port Holdings, based in Hong Kong, for accusations of breach of breach of contracting contract on the two ports it manages in the Panama Canal.
Flores, a press conference, declared that an audit of PPC launched by its office this year discovered that the company, which operates two ports at the opposite ends of the Panama Canal, found that the infractions of the contract ruptures equal to more than $ $.
Flores also accused the financial figures of the Maritime Authority (AMP) (AMP) of Panama and, therefore, will file criminal lawsuits against the company’s board and the authorities responsible for the 25 -year PPC Renwal granting.
“There are important findings that show amounts of more than 300 million dollars that must due to the lack of equality with the contract. We see a renewal that does not comply with all the procedures of law, nor does it have the support of the Office of the Comptroller.”
“I want to announce that in the next few days we will go to the public prosecutor’s office to present the corresponding complaints so that the directors who handled this Renwal, the Board of Directors and the Panama officers of Panama Panama, who must explain to explain to explain to explain to explain. Explain -to explain, to explore why so much magnanimity, why so much benevolence in a contract that has been unfair.
Panama Ports Company signed a contract with Panama in 1997 that gave PPC a 25 -year concession to develop and administer two ports at the opposite ends of the Panama Canal located in the provinces of Balboa and Cristóbal. Local authorities Renovated The contract for an additional 25 -year period in 2021 according to the terms of the original 1997 agreement, which, according to the reports, contained automatic renewal provisions provided that PPC complied with the agreed terms.
In FebruaryThe Panama Attorney General, Luis Carlos Gómez, requested that the rule of the Supreme Court of the Nations declare the 1997 granting contract “unconstitutional” because it allegedly violated 15 articles of the Panaman Constitution. Gómez submitted the request one month after the Office of the Comptroller General initiated an audit of PPC. In March, the Comptroller General Flores fixed That, despite the growth of container traffic in the country, the economic benefits for Panama result from the PPC lease agreement have “minimal” and described them as a “colonial enclave that perpetuates economic inequalities.”
The two PCC Panama ports have been in the center of a debate initiated by President Donald Trump in December after the United States asked that he regain control of the Panama Canal and denounced the alleged increasing influence and control of the interoceanic commercial route.
The two ports are between the list of facilities included in an agreement of $ 22.8 billion between Hutchison Port Holdings, the Hong-Kong conglomeum that PPC has and the Blackrock Assets administrator. The deal was blocked For the Chinese communist regime last week.
Flores clarified at the beginning of his press conference that the PPC audit processing was signed on January 15, but that the audit staff physically began his work 20, the same day that the “inauguration day” of the United States has the date on which the date “possible says” about the procedures that are an answer to the statements of the United States and that the audit is an autonomous action of Panama and its office.
Flores said that financial damages to the Panamanian State can be estimated from “different angles” and explain that, according to the original terms of the 1997 contract, Panama was receiving a percentage of the company’s profits that increased every year, dominating $ million, detailed millions, the administration of former president Panaman The ten winners of the ten, the ten percentage of the ten, which caused the central to occur, which did the recovery of the recovery in the percentage or just in the administration of the ten winners of the ten. American Nation goes from receiving $ 27 million in 2002.
“If we had fulfilled the first contract in its entirety, Panama should have received $ 1,337 billion during the concession period. And we only receive $ 483 million, with a loss before the Republic of Panama or $ 853 million,” “” now, that is not the fault of the company. It is the fault of many people, bad Panamanians, I tell him that he delivered what they do not have to deliver, they negotiated very badly. “
“If we add this to the economic damage attacked by the fact that we cool so many tax exemptions, they did not pay the rent, this results in $ 350 million more,” he continued. “In other words, the real damage to the Republic is in the order of 1.2 billion dollars at a rate of approximately 55 per year that we, as a country, stop receiving.”
Flores also explained that PPC used “concessionaires” to carry out container transport services, and explained that the Panamanian State does not receive a percentage of the profits of these companies. In addition, the commitment pointed out that the volume of containers increased, the company’s reported gain, “at least on paper”, remains the same practice.
“The company where Panama has a 10 percent participation, which is the ports of Panama, earns less every day with more teus [Twenty-foot Equivalent Unit]. I can assume that this is happening there, and they can also look at me, “Flores said.
The Comptroller, that described The contract as “Leonine” emphasized that recent PPC $ 3.78 billion between 1997 and 2003, but only paid a total of $ 236 million to the Panamanian state, and said: “In Osoter Words, they gave us advice.”
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documented life under socialism. You can follow it on Twitter Gentleman.
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