“Red devils”  bus operators raffled routes – prosecutor

On the seventh day of the preliminary hearing of 541 people accused of the alleged embezzlement through the irregular compensation of “red devils” type buses between 2010 and 2014, the Prosecutor’s Office revealed that there were cases in which the transport concessionaires carried out raffles for the allocation of operating certificates (quotas) to drivers who owned transport units and who later received compensation. During the session on Tuesday, March 22, the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor, Kyra Tascon, revealed that in an interrogation of one of the bus owners, he assured that on one occasion the concessionaires were called into a courtyard to make a raffle of operation certificates and that he was the winner.

The Prosecutor’s Office also revealed that once the authorities made the announcement of compensation for the buses, as a result of the entry into service of the Metro Bus, there were people who bought several buses in the interior of the country and then introduced them to the bus system as if they were in service  on Panama City routes when they were not entitled to compensation.

Until  Monday, the Prosecutor’s Office had managed to file charges against 340 of the 541 defendants.