Assembly plunderers face new probes

No sports organization in Panama will escape the upcoming audit by  The Comptroller General, Federico Humbert ,  after revelations by  La Prensa showed widespread plundering and funds transferred by Pandeportes – the government’s sports funding body- to regions where there were no leagues.

The   probe  of the multi millions millionas funds that the Sports Institute allocated to the circuital parties of deputies will include all the sports federations and even the Panama Olympic Committee (COP ). Criminal probes will be pursued in tandem

“The Constitution allows us that any entity or person who manages money from the State can be under the umbrella of the Comptroller, who has the obligation and ability to go to review what there was and what was not,” said Humbert during the November 5  civic commemoration  ceremonies  in the city of Colon.

Humbert said that the audit of Pandeportes began last Friday and affirmed that it will be “steadfast and firm”, as was done with the communal boards and the National Assembly’s lists.

An investigation by La Prensa revealed irregularities in the contribution of public funds that

transferred Pandeportes to natural and legal persons, provincial sports leagues, federations and

sports organizations from July 1, 2014 to May 31, 2017.

Among the beneficiaries are Benicio Robinson , deputy of the Democratic Revolutionary

Party (PRD); Jair Peralta , linked to the Panamenista  deputy Adolfo Valderrama ; Javier Ortega , of the

PRD; Miguel Salas , of the Panameñista Party; and Franz Wever , general secretary of the

Assembly, among others.

The director of Pandeportes, Mario Pérez , said recently that the entity has the doors open for the comptroller to execute the audit.

In addition to the Comptroller General’s Office, the Public Prosecutor’s Office announced that the Anticorruption Prosecutor’s Office opened a criminal investigation as a result of the anomalies denounced by La Prensa .