Herrera was not treated differently

“We were just obeying the law after the Supreme Court ordered the AMP to pay compensation to Balbina Herrera’s company,” said Solorzano.

After the Panamanian state gave the concession of the ports of Balboa and Cristobal to Panama Ports Company, 32 companies that operated in those ports claimed compensation for early termination of their contracts.

According to Solorzano the compensation scheme almost came to a grinding hold, mainly because the board of directors of the AMP went many months without having a meeting, until he took over as administrator in 2007.

After several meetings, the board decided to appoint a sub-commission to review the compensation cases.

The AMP director revealed that so far 12 companies received compensation from 1999 to 2004 and since 2007 the sub-commission has reviewed claims from 20 companies, but 17 have been denied for different reasons and three have been approved.

Two have received payment and the third one is in the process of completing its documentation.

Solorzano explained that the sub-commission determined that 17 companies were unable to proceed with the claim, because they did not submit their paperwork on time.

The administrator added that he presented the claim for compensation of Balbina Herrera’s company High Class Construction S.A. in April last year, before she became the PRD presidential candidate, so that the extraordinary credit for the payment could be approved.

Solorzano said that at the same time a report was presented about the rejected claims of the other 17 rejected companies. Currently they are taking their cases to court to be reviewed again. One of them is suing the Panamanian State alleging that the compensation payments are illegal.

“We never gave preferential treatment to Balbina Herrera and the AMP received the order to make the payment in October 2008, as prescribed by the law” concluded Solorzano.

The presidential campaign is heating up and this is one of the many potential scandals that the PRD candidate will have to face before the May 3 elections. Herrera will have to find ways to clean her image and avoid accusations.