College pay deals flout law

PANAMA University Rector Gustavo García de Paredes who earns more than the country’s president, is apparently unaware of the size of his monthly pay packet.

When asked about it, he said: “I don’t know exactly how much, about $7,000 to $8,000.” He in fact gets $12,288 a month, the third-highest salary in the public sector, behind only the ambassador to the United States and the Panama Canal administrator and ahead of the president reports La Prensa.

Parades earns that salary despite the fact that the budget law states that no official can earn a salary greater than that assigned to the post of deputy minister except the president, vice president and ministers.

But the law has been widely ignored, as the rectors of Panama’s other major colleges also earn more than the president, with the rector of the Technological University of Panama being paid $10,437 a month.

The university’s five vice rectors also make average salaries that are higher than the president, averaging $8,500 each. The secretary general makes about $8,000 a month, which is also more than the president.

Professors at the school are also well compensated. The school has 700 professors who make more than $4,000 a month. As a comparison, the number of officials making that level of salary in all the government ministries combined plus the Office of the Comptroller and the National Assembly is 678.

Questions are being raised about the high salaries being paid to teachers and staff at the University and the Office of The Comptroller has started an investigation into how they are recruited and paid.