Costa Rica: More Government Corruption Uncovered

It's hard to say if the current administration is more rife with corruption that those of the past or just Presidenta Laura Chinchilla and her ministers have not been so good at covering them up. Whatever the case, cases of corruption are making headlines almost daily.



Related:
• CONAVI Does Not Know Exactly How Many Of The Bailey Bridges Are Installed In The Country
• We Need a National Holiday To Honor Donald Bailey!

The latest? None other than the MOPT and the Bailey bridges.

For the past three years, the MOPT has paid out some ¢2.4 billion colones for Bailey structures and all to one single company, a company that has been fined in the United Kingdom (U.K.) for paying bribes for contracts.

In addition, the MOPT re-contracted the company despite that in 2009 it was discovered that the company was overcharging the state for the structures and with a history of late deliveries.

Without a question the Bailey is the magic wand for the MOPT.

The transport ministry has resorted to the Bailey to make temporary repairs to bridges and roads, such as the autopista General Cañas this past week and as well, using the Bailey as a permanent solution in some cases.

In 2008 Mabey Group admitted publicly that it may have paid bribes to the regime of Saddam Hussein in order to win business in Iraq, under the Oil-for-Food Programme. In 2011 Mabey & Johnson director David Mabey was jailed over Iraq bribes, when a U.K. court condemned the millionaire businessman and two colleagues for paying kickbacks to Saddam Hussein's regime. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/industry/engineering/8343965/Mabey-and-Johnson-director-David-Mabey-jailed-over-Iraq-bribes.html

Last month, Mabey & Johnson Ltd.’s owner was ordered by a U.K. court to pay 131,201 pounds ($201,370) in dividends gained after the bridge builder paid kickbacks to win contracts from Saddam Hussein’s Iraqi government.

In Costa Rica, the company founded by Bevil Mabey in 1923, expanding the company quickly after World War II by buying up spare Bailey bridges from the British Army, changed its name to Mabey Bridges.

And despite rumours that company was involved in payoffs in Panama, Ghana and Jamaica, it continued to be the sole supplier of Baileys in the country.

Transport officials have downplayed all this, assuring publicly in television interviews that they were not aware of Mabey's past.

In 2009 an investigative report by La Nacion revealed that the MOPT paid Mabey more than the bridge were worth, all to the benefit of the British company. MOPT officials today deny knowledge of the case.

The La Nacion reported that the state agency paid us$255.000 more for the structures that, in addition, were delivered late.

Even more interesting is that the original contract was with the Mabey and Johnson company, while since 2010 the contract has the name Mabey Bridge, the new name of the company.

Making matters worse is the MOPT's inability to provide exact information where the bridges are. We know that two of them are now installed on the autopista General Cañas, and we have seen some others around here and there, but where are the rest of the purchases that is equal to some one kilometre of road or more.

Questioned is the fact that the MOPT has maintained an exclusive relationship with one supplier with respect to the Baileys and in what appears to be one sided, all benefiting the supplier.

The contracting was endorsed by the Contraloría General de la República (Comptroller's office), which has been quick to point out that the selection of supplier was totally that of the MOPT.