Panamas hooky playing lawmakers
A TOTAL of 63 of the 71 elected lawmakers of the National Assembly, or 88 percent, make use of rules they themselves created, to excuse themselves from plenary sessions, while still drawing salary and allowances.
Of that total 23 requested absences of between 20 and 57 days says a La Prensa study.
A report of the General Secretariat of the legislature, published on the website of that body, reveals the practice of deputies requesting the absences and assigning their paid alternates to attend on their behalf.
However, in many cases, the alternates did not attend either, and there was no discounting of the salaries of either offender. Deputiies get $7,000 a month plus perks.
Annette Planells, of the Independent Movement (Movin), says that there is no will of the deputies to reform the regulations regarding the absences.
Maybe a glance at the British House of Lords would help. Members are paid an “attendance” allowance.
Sandra Escorcia, of the Institutional and Justice Movement, asked the public to grant a punishment vote to deputies who abuse this practice when they run for reelection in 2019.
She says it it is time for a discount the salaries of the deputies who miss meetings.
Maybe the nation’s underworked parliamentarians who have the unique advantage of having a paid “alternate” to warm their seats while they play hooky, will respond to an attack on their wallets, as their consciences appear impervious to morality or duty.
A draft bill to reform the regulations has, unsurprisingly been shelved by the disappearing legislature stalwarts, and looking to their fellow backscratchers in the Supreme Court for reform is a non-starter. They have their own moral code as they absent themselves from stalled legal cases and build up frequent flyer points on tax-payer funded out of country jaunts.
