$30 million corruption probe underway at sports headquarters

Anticorruption Prosecutor José Ayarza began an inspection of the facilities of the Panamanian Sports Institute (Pandeportes) HQ in Juan Díaz,  on Monday, November 12 in relation to the investigation carried out by the Public Ministry of alleged irregularities in the transfer of $30 million to deputies federations and sports organizations across the country.

Often the benefits were not seen but went to companies controlled by deputies.

Ayarza was accompanied by the deputy director of Pandeportes, Alberto Guerra, and delivered the notification of the diligence addressed to Mario Pérez, director of the entity.

The inspection is to review the procedure that was carried out in relation to the distributed funds.

On November 1, the Office of the Comptroller General announced that it would conduct an “official” audit of the use of funds in the Pandeportes following a request from the Attorney General’s office when an investigation of Pandeportes was published by La Prensa.

On November 10, the Comptroller General, Federico Humbert, revealed that Pandeportes  had disbursed more than $30 million dollars since 2014

Humbert said  that the National Directorate of General Auditing would perform the audit in order to “determine the correct or incorrectness of the operations that affect public patrimonies.”

The La Prensa probe revealed that during the administration of Pandeportes, substantial contributions were made to the circuital parties of the deputies, who refuse to detail how they used the millions of dollars.

The scandal threatens to throw a cloud over the final months Varela administration already facing strong criticism about its continuing links to Odebrecht which has received billions in contracts in spite of the construction company’s corruption history.

The investigations also show that Pandeportes disbursed sports organizations at least $14 million, between May 2014 and May 2017.

The Public Ministry reported that the Anticorruption Prosecutor’s Office began an investigation of the case.  on October 30.