Mayer Mizrachi: Panama Citizens Can Now Verify the Identity of Officials 

It is now possible to validate that inspectors and officials actually work in the Panama City Hall using a QR code.  The Mayor of Panama Mayer Mizrachi announced that citizens can now verify that officials from the Panama City Hall actually work for the institution.  The mayor of the capital said that this will be possible through a QR code placed on their work card.  “Eventually we will be adding other functions such as report it or applaud it, this way you have greater participation, and the official knows that he cannot simply do what he wants but that he has to put his best face forward, in this way, he is being graded,” he said.  The mayor of the capital city warns that this is a way to oversee the work, and also to give participation to the citizens to limit improper actions by people who do not work in the institution, and at the same time to ensure more efficient service.  Mizrachi emphasized that this is an example that this type of initiatives can be carried out within the Municipality with its own human capital, without having to incur additional expenses.

Mayor Mayer Mizrachi also sent a message to former president Juan C. Varela.  Mayer criticized the country’s justice system, but is confident that President Mulino’s administration can change the system.  Panama Mayor Mayer Mizrachi revealed a strong message he had prepared in 2016 for then President Juan Carlos Varela, from his confinement in the Colombian prison of La Picota: Suck it Varela!  Mizrachi held a press conference to reveal details of the ruling by the High Court for the Liquidation of Criminal Cases, which declared null and void everything put together by Kenia Porcell’s Attorney General’s Office in the so-called Criptex app case.  Mayer strongly criticized the country’s justice system, but said he was confident that the administration of President José Raúl Mulino could change the system, because the president shared the injustices.  In the Criptext case, the Varela government requested Mizrachi’s arrest on December 29, 2015, when he had traveled to Cartagena to spend the New Year. He was imprisoned in La Picota until June 22, 2016. “The only thing I knew was that I would come out from there and when that day came I only had a few words written on La Picota, in 2016 for the now ex-president: Suck it Varela!” exclaimed Mizrachi, showing a sheet of lined paper with the message written in ballpoint pen ink.