New forensic audit team for high profile cases

A FORENSIC audit unit, dedicated to uncovering fraud in “high profile cases” has been created by Panama’s Comptroller General, Federico Humbert, who took office January 2.

 The Office of Investigations and Forensic Audits (DIAF) will debut with a forensic audit on purchases of backpacks in the past government, when Lucy Molinar was Minister of Education. She is already under investigation by anti-corruption prosecutors.
Humbert held a meeting on Tuesday, January 13 with the current Minister of Education, Marcela Paredes, says a press release from the Comptroller’s office.
The DIAF will also investigate a trade referred by the First Anticorruption prosecutor: the purchase and disappearance of spying equipment in 2010 for $13.4 million with funds from the National Assistance Program (PAN)
“We as Comptroller, have officially initiated research on the purchase,” said Humbert.
He added that it is expected that forensic audits conducted by the DIAF will not drag on for “six or eight months, as in the past