By Lomi Kriel PANAMA CITY (Reuters) - The Panama Canal's former administrator is largely to blame for a dispute that threatens a multibillion-dollar expansion of the waterway and should have flagged doubts about Spanish builder Sacyr, President Ricardo Martinelli said on Monday. The Panama Canal Authority and a consortium led by Sacyr have been locked in a bitter feud over costs for weeks that has thrown the project into doubt. The consortium wants the Canal to pay for $1.6 billion in cost overruns, and the two sides are seeking ways to keep finances flowing in the meantime. Martinelli, who took office days before the contract was awarded in July 2009, said former canal administrator Alberto Aleman, who headed the canal authority from 1999 to 2012, shouldered much of the blame for the dispute, which he called "a chronicle of a death foretold." "He is very responsible for everything that is happening.