Transparency agency and Las Tablas butt heads

THE MAYOR of Las Tablas is not happy with his town’s ranking in a transparency evaluation issued by  Panama’s Transparency and Access to Information Authority (Antai) and on Friday, Jan, 26 went to the institution’s office in the capital city to express his views.

What followed has further widened the gap between the municipality and the agency’s  director Angélica Maytín.

According to the Antai,  Mayor  Noé Iván Herrera, went to the offices with “aggressive behavior” and entered the upper office “without authorization, making claims in a disrespectful way, with defiant attitude and violating security “, while using  “inappropriate” words referring to Maytín.

The visit was the result of Herrera’s disagreement with Antai’s transparency evaluation of the Las Tablas municipality.

As part of its functions, the Antai periodically makes a measurement of the transparency of the websites of various institutions, public companies and municipalities.

The most recent report on the municipalities put  Las Tabl in the basement of the ranking with zero points, while Panama and La Chorrera took first place with 100 points.

“The staff in the upper office asked him to leave and he threatened go to the media, “said Antai, in a statement published  Saturday, Jan 27.

“We regret this type of behavior of an official who represents the highest authority of the municipality of Las Tablas, ” the statement said, adding that they are willing to receive complaints and denunciations “within the framework of respect”.

The mayor responded that he is being politically persecuted”, reports La Prensa.

“Since the Antai began to list the transparency of municipalities, Las Tablas has come in on three occasions as the municipality least transparent,” said  Herrera. He added that on the website of the municipality (lastablas.municipios.gob.pa) sits all the information of the spreadsheet and the projects that are carried out.

Herrera said that the official who attended him at the Antai  office had a defiant  attitude

defiant towards him, to which he did not respond because he is an authority.

He said that he will issue a statement on Monday to respond to Antai’s version of events.