Martinelli named as ex-PAN directors cooperate with prosecution

A FORMER former director of the National Assistance Program (PAN) concluded his preliminary statement to the anticorruption proecuor, reaffirming an earlier declaration: that he signed contracts for up to $45 million to acquire dehydrated foods, following the orders of then president Ricardo Martinelli.

Another director continued providing names of those involved and promised to continue cooperating with the prosecution.

ON Monday, January 26. Giacomo Tamburrelli appeared before Second Anicoruption Prosecutor Vielka Broce, who on January 15 was named to replace Lizzett Chevalier.
He said Adolfo “Chichi” De Obarrio, former secretary of former private, arrived with orders on what to buy and from whom reports La Prensa.
Tamburrelli’s lawyer Gonzalo Moncada, said that on Monday the investigation ended, , but that his client who is under house arrest and barred from leaving the country-is willing to continue working with the prosecutor.
He said that he requested a modification of the precautionary measure of house arrest and also demanded greater protection for the former official who claims to have been threatened and has sent some of his family out of the country.
Tamburrelli, director of the PAN, between July 2009 and August 2012, had a medical disability certificate that expired January 22 after undergoing a heart procedure.
Both Tamburrelli and Rafael Guardia Jaén, another former director of PAN currently imprisoned in La Gran Joya were interrogated on Monday in connection with anomalies in PAN during the Martinelli government (2009-2014).
The first to reach the Avesa building on Via Espana was Guardia Jaén, who makeda statement in the Third Anti-Corruption Prosecutor in research related to a contract to buy tires for vehicles of the State.
Guardia Jaén’s lawyer Victor Orobio said his client will tell everything he knows and is cooperating with justice, so cannot invent names.
Last Friday Guardia Jaén pleaded guilty in the case of buying bags of rice with surcharges during meetings with First Anticorruption Prosecutor and decided to cooperate with the prosecution to return to the state all assets acquired irregularly while director of PAN (2012-2014. He provided a list of names of business and government people he said were involved in the scams.