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Peru’s government will submit a bill to congress to reform its procurement system “in the next couple of months” as part of efforts to fight corruption in the infrastructure sector, economy and finance minister María Antonieta Silva (in photo) said.
“Like many other countries in the region we have suffered with corruption in the ‘construction club’ and Lava Jato cases. Therefore as a country we have a massive challenge to banish corruption from public works management,” Silva said during IDB’s presentation of its 2020 flagship report on infrastructure.
The minister said there is “space for improvement” in the PPP system and that reviews are underway.
Silva also admitted that the country “hasn’t paid adequate attention to disaster risks. A few years ago we had the El Niño phenomenon that had serious consequences for public services and only now through the government-to-government program we can begin reconstruction.”
Last month, Peru and the UK signed a government-to-government agreement for the reconstruction of northern areas affected by floods in 2017.
The program entails 7bn soles (US$2bn) to build 15 hospitals and health centers, 74 schools and water infrastructure that includes seven drainage systems and management plans for 17 rivers and five ravines.
