Privately run speed cameras illegal prosecutor

TRAFFIC Safety cameras brought to Panama by the Ricarso Martinelli administration and run by a firm headed by the editor of a newspaper controlled by Martinelli cannot be used the Third Division of Administrative Litigation of the Supreme Court was told..

The case arose after the National Association of Vehicle Lessors (ANAV) demanded the annulment of the contract concession agreement between Traffic Safety and Traffic Authority (ATTT) in 2011.
Last July, the Chamber ordered the temporary suspension of the contract, to decide the merits of the claim. For this reason, video surveillance cameras could not be restarted
Oscar Ceville while Administration Prosecutor until January 15 when he was replaced by Rigoberto Gonzalez warned that the contract “suffers from vices of nullity” because it leaves “in the hands of a particular private company” the role of public administration … the collection of fines for speeding.
He also stressed that the contract endorsed by the Comptroller November 24, 2011, “no effect” because it was never published in the Official Gazette reports La Prensa.
Another illegality was that a public consultation was not held, as dictated by (the 2002 “Transparency Law”) .
Finally, Ceville noted in the contract a “set of conditions that were injurious to the public interest”, and ask the judges of the Chamber Abel Zamorano, Victor Benavides and Luis Ramón Fábrega- to outlaw the contract.
Traffic Safety cameras were installed in June 2012 and ordered shut down by the ATTT 15 days after La Prensa reported their existence. In just two weeks of operation over 2000 fines were issued from onlt two in Costa del Este.
When the contract was agreed, in 2011, Traffic Safety was represented by Ricardo Chanis, president of Editora Panama America, SA (Epasa), a company in which the president, Ricardo Martinelli, is a major shareholder. Chanis denies any link to the dealership.