Comptroller freezes pay for staff of 11 deputies

PANAMA’S Comptroller General has short-circuited the president of the National Assembly by ordering the suspension of the payment to the staff of 11 deputies recorded on expense form 080 without support.

Form 080 of the National Assembly is the one that contains the personal contracts of those working for the deputies, and that since 2015 has increased from $4,000 to $30,000, monthly.

The suspension, which includes the brother of President Varela, follows the blocking of a forensic audit of the cookie jar which amounts to some $30.000 a month for each deputy, which has been exposed as a pipeline for payment of unauthorized projects for political supporters and for nonexistent professional services.

In a letter to the President of the Legislature, Yanibel Ábrego, Comptroller Federico Humbert said that the measure was adopted after an evaluation of the 080 “form, a group of officials that did not present any support that they have “provided some service to the State”.

The Comptroller’s measure includes the form of Panamenista deputies José Luis Varela, Juan Serrano,  Melitón Arrocha and Jorge Alberto Rosas, in addition, to the staff of Democratic Change (CD) deputies Aris De Icaza, Fernando Carrillo and Salvador Real,and  to the staff of PRD deputies Carlos Motta, Elías Castillo, Jaime Pedrol and Athanasia Athanasiadis.

On May 15, the Comptroller’s Office attempted to conduct a forensic audit of form 080 in the Assembly, but its president prevented the action, arguing that they were awaiting a ruling by the Supreme Court on an appeal of guarantees filed against the measure of the comptroller.

In March, the comptroller had sent a letter to  Ábrego, warning:  “after reviewing the preliminary progress of an audit by the Comptroller’s Office, we find that in many cases there are no controls necessary to confirm the provision of contracted services under the purpose of 080 expense regarding other professional services. “

On April 26, the Legislature made public the 080 form, with 3,021 names of people identified, mostly, as sports and community promoters.

On May 15, Ábrego stopped a forensic audit of Form 080 by the Comptroller’s Office and appealed to the Supreme Court for constitutional guarantees against the action ordered by Humbert.

The full Court has not yet ruled on the admission or rejection of the amparo.

In addition to the clashes over the 080 form, the Comptroller Humbert returned to President of the Assembly, without endorsement, more than 1,800 contracts for professional services that add up to a total of $7.5 million in salaries.

On May 24, Humbert informed the Assembly president  “we have detected a group of officials that did not present any grounds for proving they  had provided any service to the State, according to the information provided by the entity in charge”