Law makers’contracts and donations for audit

PANAMA’S Comptroller General, Federico Humbert  has another load on his plate with an upcoming audit of thousands of donations and contracts in the National Assembly since the present administration took office.

A  letter went on Thursday, March 10 to to the president of the National Assembly, Rubén De León, to inform him that  the donations and contracts for professional services carried out between July 2014 and December 31, 2016 will be audited

The decision was based on an investigative series published by La Prensa    revealing that, in many cases, the donations announced by the Assembly did not make it to the intended recipients.

The series also identified irregularities in contracts.

The case has prompted a complaint before the Supreme Court calling  for a criminal investigation.

De León has said that he does not think there was any wrongdoing, but has supported the calls for the investigation. There have been $400,000 in donations made by legislators in the last 20 months alone

In the  Assembly there is another formula for managing money whose final use is unknown: it is the combination of donations with the issuance of service contracts to professionals. $68 million has been issued for various contracts for professional services (from July 2014 through December 31, 2016). As with donations, much of the money from the contracts did  not reach their final recipient.

La Prensa counted more than 17,000   contracts for professional services, from July 2014

To December 31, 2016. Of these, the investigator   traced a small sample that corroborated

that about 150 people who received donations – for an overall amount of $200,000  signed  parallel contracts for professional services that added About $ 800,000 – offered by officials of the Assembly which  were neither solicited nor worked  on by many of the beneficiaries This means for example, that members of a family received donations and contracts, but Assembly officials kept the money.