Panamanian politician Dr. Alfredo Oranges, his company Merconsult is buying the Libertad Factory and two thousand acres of adjoining property for US$1.5 million to be paid in two installments. The Opposition has said that the deal is corrupt through and through and more than that, it's grossly under priced. But until today, that was just talk. Senator Godwin Hulse produced correspondence from a U.S. based company called Texanol which, according to what representatives of that company told Hulse, is willing to pay much more than Oranges's US$1.5 million. Here's what he had to say on that.
Senator Godwin Hulse,
"Man I am not certain that the Tender's Committee perhaps had received all the bids and I am not certain that the Contractor General also saw all the bids, and I am not suggesting that the things were kept from them but these things happen sometimes when we do business. Because shortly after the announcement was made as Senator for the private sector, a company called Texanol, an ethanol production company, contacted me and really tied me up on the phone for a long time so I asked them what on earth were they talking about and they told me they had submitted a tender for the Libertad Sugar Factory, Santa Cruz Lodge and agricultural lands.
They subsequently faxed and emailed me several documents showing in fact that their tender was put in on time and there was a response from Mr. Waight who said, 'I can confirm receipt of the tender submitted by International Services Limited. The tender will go in today and then we will go through a process of evaluation leading to a recommendation to the Minister of Finance.' They have a business plan attached to it, a business plan for the production of ethanol.
And then they go on to say, 'Texanol offered to pay the government $3.5 million for the Libertad Factory is clear and submitted without any request for concession from them. We make a simple offer to buy. We would have liked the opportunity to provide more information to any appropriate official, blah blah.'
So on this basis Mr. President I am respectfully submitting to this Honorable Senate that we hold this one in committee and ask Mr. Waight and/or the Tender's Committee for a response with respect to this particular offer because I did hear the Honorable Prime Minister say that Merconsult was the best offer and the other offer was from a company that wanted to scrap Libertad and clearly it cannot be this one they are talking about.
So I am wondering whether the bid did make it in, whether the Tender's Committee did see it and if not, why not. I don't think they would have gone through all this trouble if they were not serious about this offer. And it seems to me then that in fact $3.7 million is a far cry from $1.2 million, especially if payment is upfront and they intend to proceed with ethanol production."
Senator Anthony Chanona,
"I sat in deep concern on the statements made by my Honorable friend Senator Hulse. If I heard rightly, there was a process of the submission of a tender for US$1.375 million and I would want to have the benefit that the process was duly within the prescribed framework. It would serve the purpose of transparency for this matter to go to committee for review before we table this matter for vote. The information is a little too overwhelming."
It was sent back to committee which met this afternoon with Deputy Financial Secretary Joe Waight who was one of three senior public officers who sat on the tenders committee that approved the Libertad sale. He was questioned at some length about the offer presented by Texanol and explained that their plan was not backed up by a credible business plan, and because of that, it was refused. The Senate committee members, including Hulse were satisfied and at the end of the day the Senate approved the sale to Oranges's Merconsult.
