Panama’s corrupt predators cash in on pandemic

As ordinary Panamanians reel under the effects of the coronavirus pandemic, the inherently corrupt have seized on the health and economic disaster to flaunt the privileges of power and plunder the public purse.

 The alleged irregular purchases of medical equipment, violations of quarantine by officials, and public spending seen as superfluous despite the social crisis derived from the pandemic feed a sense of corruption and impunity in Panama that hits the image of the Government, according to an EFE  News Agency analysts.

The “lack of transparency and governance” coupled with the historical “institutional weakness” are the main creators of this feeling of “impunity and corruption” to which citizens are already protesting, social networks and the media.

A “repetitive and tiring” modus operandi  The Prosecutor’s Office is handling  a dozen investigations, opened after complaints from the local press, for alleged irregularities in emergency state purchases during the COVID-19 pandemic, which already exceeds 102,000 cases and accumulates 2,140 deaths..

Among the most recent scandals is the alleged purchase of 53 “old and dilapidated” mechanical ventilators for critical patients of COVID-19, at a cost of $2.3 million.In Panama “we have a repetitive and tiring modus operandi: there is a scandal, there is an investigation of a different type and little conclusion. This is generating an enormous danger of lack of credibility of the institutions and of governance,” said  Carlos Barsallo,  the president of the Panama Chapter of  Transparency International (TI),