Collections agency files heading to public prosecutor

FILES RELATED TO the debt collecting agency de Cobranzas del Istmo, which is alleged to have collected over $21 million in commissions for Tocumen,SA, accounts that had already been paid, are now in the hands of the Public Ministry.

 The Ministry of Finance has already sent to the Public Ministry (MP) all information related to the company and asked for an investigation.
The announcement was made Saturday, April 25, by Finance Minister Dulcidio De La Guardia, referring to the company contracted by Luis Cucalón, former CEO of Revenue, to manage certain debts reports La Prensa.
“Every record information, such as dates of payments … everything has been sent for several weeks to the MP to make the necessary investigations,” De La Guardia told localmedia at the Annual Conference of Executives (CADE ), organized by the Panamanian Association of Business Executives (APEDA).
This week the CEO of Revenue, Publio Cortés, unveiled new irregularities found in the management of Cucalón, who led the entity to raise state revenue between 2009 and October 2014. He revealed that since October 2013 the company had access to the accounts of all taxpayers, not just those that were assigned for collection.
Cortés also announced that it has introduced five new complaints of other irregularities in the previous administration. The five cases will join two other investigations already underway in the MP.
In the four years of the contractual relationship, Cobranzas del Istmo, received $47.1 million.