Comptroller Under Gun Over Deputy Audits

Transparency  International (TI) is on the tail of Panama’s Comptroller General, Federico Humbert to discover what has happened to an audit that began in the National Assembly eight month ago.

Lina Vega Abad, President of – the Foundation for the Development of Citizen Freedom, the Panama chapter of TI has sent a letter to the Comptroller  reminding him that investigations by The Public Prosecutor’s Office of donations and subsidies, were dismissed “due to the absence of the corresponding audits of the Comptroller General that, obviously, are the fundamental pieces of the process “.

Last April, an investigation by La Prensa documented that The Assembly distributed $14 million in donations that, mostly did not end up with the original beneficiary, as well as $68 million in contracts for professional services for jobs that almost never took place.

The monies were distributed between July 2014 and March 3, 2017, during the presidencies of the deputies Adolfo Valderrama (2014-2015) and Rubén De León (2015-2017).

“The fight against corruption and the abuse of power requires the commitment of all; from the State institutions and the organizations of civil society. We all have a role to play to preserve democracy and institutions, “writes Vega Abad in her note to Humbert.

On April 20, 2017, the Foundation filed a criminal complaint with the Public Prosecutor, against five officers of the Assembly and one of the Office of the Comptroller General for the alleged commission of the crime of embezzlement.

In September, the Second Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office requested a provisional dismissal, because of the lack of corresponding audits.