Assembly president locks horns with  comptroller and court

With just two weeks left in the term of the current administration with many of the sitting deputies victims of the “no to reelection” campaign, the president of the National Assembly, CD Deputy Yanibel Abrego,  continues to lock horns with Panama’s Comptroller General,  and the Supreme Court.

On, Thursday, June 13 The Comptroller’s Office sent a team to restart take the audit of the controversial form 80 (lawmakers’ payroll), but, Ábrego, prevented it, said the comptroller Federico Humbert in a statement.

 Humbert recalled that the Supreme Court rejected on May 18 an appeal of protection of constitutional guarantees presented by Ábrego in 2018, and gave the green light for the Comptroller to continue with the audit.

The Legislature responded with a statement t that ” at no time did they deny access to the auditors,” and that they were given a copy of a request for clarification of the ruling made to the Court on May 24, and that they will cooperate once they receive the clarification presented.

In a statement, the Comptroller reported that Ábrego did not allow access to the Assembly of auditors of that entity that sought to audit form 080, a fact that Humbert considered  He called Abrego’s defiance “arbitrary” and “unlawful.” He added  that it is “unacceptable that the first body of the State, precisely in charge of approving the laws and regulations that all citizens are obliged to comply with, should be the one that promotes, in an open example of rebellion and insubordination to the Supreme Court of Justice, compliance with the Constitution and the Law ” .

The Comptroller ordered the audit of form 080 after detecting a series of irregularities in the handling of these funds, among them, the deposit of 997 checks totaling  $630,000  in the same account. i

He also detected that checks for $ 1.1 million were exchanged at the same branch of a bank and by the same cashier. Also, it was discovered the existence of officials who were paid but never worked, which the comptroller called “botellas.

Through a statement, the Assembly responded that  ” at no time was  admission denied to the auditors”; they were only informed that the Legislature presented a request for clarification of the judgment to the Court on May 24, “fundamental to determine the future validity or nullity of the audit.”

According to the statement, the Assembly is awaiting the response to the request, which was presented by the lawyer Carlos Carrillo, representing the Legislative.