OFF THE CUFF: PAN scandal net has rich haul
AS THE NET is emptied on one side of Panama’s National Assistance Program (PAN) scandal, another starts to fill UP on another side, and the team of anti-corruption prosecutors are working long hours separating the small denizens of the murky pond from the large, although thealleged biggest fish, according to two former directors of the program are in the United States, and such is the work load, some of the sardines will ikely slip through the mesh.
Businessman Félix Fernández-Miranda is the latest to be been implicated by former Director Rafael Guardia Jaén in the irregularities regarding the sale of backpacks to the Ministry of Education that was financed by the agency, and the net reaches out to Super 99 and the Martinelli family.
Guardia Jaén, in his most recent interview with prosecutors April 17, said that Fernández-Miranda met with fashion boutique owner Poulett Morales to agree on a price that both would charge the PAN for the backpacks. He said this was done to avoid any discrepancies in the price. Morales has also admitted to fixing the price of the backpacks reports La Prensa.
Prosecutors allege that the price fixing led to the PAN overpaying for the items. It is also investigating former Minister of Education Lucy Molinar, who signed the contracts for the purchases.
Fernández-Miranda is a partner of EM-Y-M, S.A., a company which received several millions of dollars in contracts from the PAN between 2009 and 2013, including the lucrative contract to provide the backpacks.
MARTINELLI LINK
Guardia Jaén revealed to prosecutors in a recent investigation that Fernandez-Miranda is part of a “group” of business owners linked to Roberto Brin, former purchasing director of Super 99 supermarkets, owned by former President Ricardo Martinelli, and a cousin of his wife, the group also includes Aldo Mangravita Fernandez-Miranda, the nephew of Félix Fernández-Miranda who was in charge of distributing the backpacks reports La Prensa
