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business & economy

Also in this section:
Preparing for the canal expansion announcement
Upscale water thieves?
Venezuela quits the Andean Community
Business & Economy Briefs

Illegal water connections aren't just for the poor
by Eric Jackson, from other media

It's a dirty little secret that comes out from time to time.

One notorious example from recent years was when then-legislator Francisco Reyes, hiding behind his immunity from investigation or prosecution for crimes, pulled a gun on two electric company workers who were disconnecting the "spider web" through which he was stealing power. (The voters threw him out in 2004, but as his replacement has been accused of putting phantom employees on her payroll and he has never had to answer for his assault with a deadly weapon, we who vote in Circuit 8-7 and the people of Panama in general have our reasons to doubt whether justice was done.)

Yes, there have been disturbances in places like Arraijan and the eastern outskirts of Panama City, when entire downscale neighborhoods that more often than not are the fruit of squatter invasions get their unauthorized water or electrical connections cut. But every now and then someone from the electricity industry will admit that more power is stolen in upscale Paitilla, where the thieves have more appliances to run and heavy handed tactics by utilities backed by the riot squad just aren't used.

The worst utility thieves in Panama are not poor.

Now we have seen further proof of this in the upscale developments going up along the eastern part of Panama Bay. El Panama American reports that the state-owned IDAAN water and sewer utility has been raiding that area, cutting off illegal water connections to such tony new residential areas as Palmeras del Este, Veranda, Magnolia and Balmoral. According to La Prensa, on April 18 alone IDAAN cut off illegal water lines to 89 residences in the Costa del Este area, and added that there had been previous raids in Punta Pacifica and there are more operations planned in San Francisco, Bethania and Bella Vista.

IDAAN's Juan Montiel estimated to El Panama America that some 65 percent of developers alter water meters or otherwise install illegal connections to the water mains. That figure was rejected by Javier Cardoze, the president of the Panamanian Chamber of Construction, in the same article.

The Palmeras del Este development is still mostly under construction, and the homes there will cost from $250,000 up. Its developer is Empresas Bern. The development's 65 illegal connections were to the line installed for the model home. In La Prensa company spokesman José Manuel Bern blamed subcontractors and complained that residents had asked IDAAN for legal water connections and had been told that there were no meters available to install.

Let us not just summarily dismiss the latter charge as self-serving corporate spin from a business that has been caught. Corruption in Panamanian state-owned and private utility services is a time-honored tradition, and one of the forms that it takes is when installation is made difficult to impossible unless bribes are paid to company employees, who often make the connections after their legitimate working hours.

It does seem, however, that some of this country's wealthiest individuals and enterprises are again showing us the etiology of our entrenched corruption. It starts at the top, among those who are supposed to be the pillars of society, and drips down through the social strata until every aspect of Panamanian life becomes saturated.

Editor's note: Has your neighbor been watering her lawn night and day while you have been using your normal amount of water, and has your water bill just taken a drastic jump? That's another version of the illegal connection, wherein water or electricity is charged to a neighbor by routing it through his or her meter. It's beyond the scope of this story, but a matter about which foreigners living in Panama should be especially aware, because sometimes the authorities here will treat such theft from the gringo as a laughing matter rather than the law enforcement issue that it ought to be.

Panama Canal expansion update

Also in this section:
Preparing for the canal expansion announcement
Upscale water thieves?
Venezuela quits the Andean Community
Business & Economy Briefs