Transparency chief renews call for removal of suspect from Canal board.

THE DIRECTOR of the National Authority of Transparency and Access to Information (Antai)Angelica Maytín is not prepared to take no for an answer and has urged the president of the board of the Panama Canal Authority (ACP), Roberto Roy, to personally ask Nicholas Corcione to remove himself from the board.

Corcione, appointed by Ricardo Martinelli, has been using his place on the board to dodge interviews with Panama’s organized crime prosectuor Nahaniel Murgas.
It is not the first time Maytín asked for Corione’s removal,.She wrote first on August 10, but four days later Roy replied claiming that the Basic Law does not allow him to take action,, although he urged Corcione to answer the allegations of the prosecutor linking Corcione to an alleged money laundering scam linked to jailed former judge Alejandro Moncada Luna.
On Wednesday August 19, Maytín addressed a second letter to Roy.
“Although the legal rules governing the ACP do not let you remove a member of the board or for unethical conduct, nothing prevents you asking Mr. Corcione to leave office for the duration of the investigation,” wrote Maytín.
The Court has earlier rulings, determining that the directors of public entities are processed by the Public Ministry.
The Antai director also noted that the ACP has no internal rules enabling it impose sanctions for breaches of ethics, and urged Roy to correct the “legal vacuum”.
“It would be unacceptable because of a gap in its rules, the board does not take a position on such a serious issue, that daily tarnishes the image of the most important company in the country, the ACP,” she wrote.
Corcione was called for questioning by the prosecutor Murgas twice since July 29. The first time he was absent with the excuse that he was “family trip”.
The second time did not appear and his lawyer filed a motion claiming that his client should be investigated by the Supreme Court, under the adversarial criminal justice system, given its status as a member of the board of a state agency.
The Court, in earlier decisions, has determined that the directors of public entities are processed by the Public Ministry.