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LIMA, Jan. 24 (Xinhua) -- Peruvian President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski on Tuesday said the discredited Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht should leave the country.
"They have to go. It's over. They will have to reach an agreement with the Prosecutor's Office," state news agency Andina quoted Kuczynski as saying.
The president said the firm, which has admitted to paying some 29 million U.S. dollars in bribes to Peruvian officials in exchange for lucrative public-work contracts, should liquidate its business ventures in Peru.
Kuczynski also ordered an Odebrecht-led consortium to pay a 262 million-U.S. dollar fine for the breach of contract early Tuesday, after the consortium failed to secure the financing needed to complete Peru's Southern Gas Pipeline, which it had won in a bid.
The 1,080-km pipeline project, estimated to cost some 7.328 billion U.S. dollars, was to supply the southern port city of Ilo from gas fields in Camisea in central Peru.
The government is to issue a new bid on the project, which began in 2015.
