"PECC Was Created to Steal Taxes"

By SANTIAGO Fascetto for La Prensa - The former Comptroller Alvin Weeden said yesterday that the company Ports Engineering and Consultants Ltd. (ECCP) was created to "steal tax money" from the State. He accused, by first and last name, those politicians who benefited with the money generated by the company: Hugo Torrijos, Rubén Reyna and Ernesto Pérez Balladares. "The purpose [of PECC] was to steal tax money, they saw that it was generating $3 million dollars per year and operating expenses were only $400,000 per year. It was business," said the former official in conversation with La Prensa. In 1997 PECC signed a contract with the now defunct National Port Authority (APN) to assist in the navigation of ships arriving in Panamanian waters. Hugo Torrijos was the administrator of the APN, and Ruben Reyna was the deputy, during the administration of Perez Balladares. Weeden was tasked to carry out, in his position as the Comptroller General of the Republic, an investigation into the alleged damage to the State, which resulted in the exposure of the complex network of companies, businessmen, and politicians who were behind the PECC. "They were so cynical that they didn't even buy furniture or anything, they just used the furniture of the APN, and the Lighthouses and Buoys Section of the APN was passed to the PECC," he said. Now, the former President of PECC, Charles Jumet, confessed to the US Justice System that he paid bribes to Panamanian officials to finalize the agreement. Weeden said of the investigation in the U.S., that he collaborated with official of the justice system there, and even traveled to the United States to help investigators. In Panama, however, the court process was not successful even though, according Weeden - the respective justice systems of the two countries had the same documentation in the case.