Baseball Scam: Bats for Ngäbe Buglé never imported

The  Panamanian Institute of Sports (Pandeportes) gave the  Panama Baseball Federation(Fedebeis)  $7 million between July 2014 and May 2017, of which about $3 million went to pay for supplies destined to different parts of the country. The most benefited -according to the checks issued by Pandeportes- were the province of Panama, especially the district of San Miguelito, where supposedly almost $600,000  were destined

After the publication of an exposure series by La Prensa, the general cacique of the Ngäbe Buglé comarca, Silvia Carrera, made inquiries among the regional caciques and sportsmen in order to discover know if they received the implements. None knew anything about them.

In Besikó, coaches and players were astonished to see checks and invoices of the alleged purchases, while they play with overused equipment held together with wire said Husain Rodriguez, technical director of the team of Soloy – and treasurer of the district league that receives the supplies,

“Where are they?” Ask Carrera, Rodríguez and other sports leaders from the Mironó, Besikó and Nole Duima districts, cited in the checks as the beneficiary communities of the inputs.

They still await an explanation of why they have not seen equipment But neither Fedebeis nor Pandeportes nor the deputy Jaime Pedrol – who is cited in the documents that accompanied the checks – have provided any justification. All are silent and have not shown evidence that there were equipment deliveries reports La Prensa.

The region -according to reports from the Fedebeis delivered to Pandeportes- they received a batting machine, uniforms for thousands of players, to BBCorth bats, at $54.80 each.

BBCorth is a special certification or quality regulation of bats used in high schools in the US  and in the Major League Baseball that guarantees that the bats have a better performance.

According to official reports, 1,300 sweaters, 3, 478 pants, 8 594 hats, 358 leather handles, 562 dozens of balls (white and yellow), 18 home plate, 35 sets of bases, 197 aluminum bats were distributed in the region. plus 168 wooden bats, 408 sets of uniforms, 32 catcher sets, 16 pitching plates, a batting machine; 8 batting stops and 600 “polo-type” sweaters, according to 10 invoices from Dutary Sport and 3 from Niky’s Corp.

Deputy Benicio Robinson, president of the Fedele is and a leader of the PRD party  -in a television interview- said that his critics did not know the discipline, “as if saying that the Indians do not deserve to have an aluminum bat or a ‘bam bam’., .”

La Prensa the import records of the National Customs Authority for the imports made by the two companies that sold these implements, according to the invoices contributed by the Fedebeis.

The investigation produced a surprising result: neither of the two companies that supposedly sold the supplies to the Fedebeis registered any imports during the indicated years of a single bat, balls or the baseball equipment described in their invoices says La Prensa.

These bats, because of their specifications, are not produced in Panama. The factory of the Baum Bat, as said, is in the United States. In addition, their wholesale prices are much lower than those described by Robinson and the bills of the Fedebeis.