Happiness Coach earns more than  his lawyer audience

A motivator who learned his trade at a one year course earns more than the lawyers he coaches at the Transparency and Access to Information  Authority (Antai) says a La Prensa report.

In search of happiness” and “The future of humanity” are two of the talks given to officials of the Authority by a coach who will charge $3,000 a month an  income higher than the salary of lawyers who work for the institution says the newspaper.

The l director of Antai, Elsa Fernández, justified the hiring of Paul Donato by indicating that it is part of her “inter-institutional strategic plan.”

“As he is not a public servant, he does not keep a schedule, but instead presents results reports,” said Fernández. Donato said his report is about his talks, without monitoring of their effectiveness. “That is not my job,” he said.

Donato was hired as a coach advisor on the Antai payroll, from February 1 to July 31, with a monthly income of $ 3,000.

Although a state of emergency was declared a month later due to the pandemic, the contract was maintained. It was sent on May 6 to the Comptroller General for its endorsement, Later, the contract was renewed, so that its term was approved until December 30, reported Fernández.

The motivator, would do “special jobs”, as described in the entity’s payroll, earns a higher salary than the lawyers and the Antai’s head of internal audit, whose salaries don’t exceed $2,000 per month.

The image of the motivator is promoted on the institution’s digital portal. Antai announces that he gave the talks “In search of happiness”, “The existential sense, value and ethics” and “Filtering stressful stimuli”, as well as “Courage and ethics, civil servant of the XXI century”, .

In the last webinar given by Donato, it is indicated that the initiative had the purpose of “highlighting the key role of the public servant as a model before society and also with a view to reducing the cases of public servants who are involved in unethical situations ”.

La Prensa says  Donato reports activities as a motivator since 2017 on his website. “In the last 10 years he has worked directly with young people, motivating them to achieve their dreams, a week after being hired by Antai, Donato had the “Summer Camp 2020” activity scheduled for young people from 13 to 17 years old, in a Panama hotel.

Donato describes himself as a “lecturer, broadcaster, preacher, facilitator, and  international speaker”,

The director of Antai said that Donato, “since he is not a public servant, does not adhere to an established schedule, but instead presents a results report” monthly.

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Corruption issues
Fernández stated that she hired the services of the motivator because, among the functions of the Antai, is to carry out training “directly or through third parties” on issues related to ethical, civic and moral values, as well as “promulgate and implement prevention policies against the corruption”.

However, says La Prensa  among the motivator’s employee training are topics such as leadership in emotional management, resilience to withstand frustrations, self-control, among others, and almost nothing on the issue of corruption.

Fernandez said  that Donato is a specialist “in the transformation of the human being …”, and that almost 3,000 people have been trained in person and through the virtual platform.

She said that  the coaching partners with people in “a thoughtful and creative mentoring process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential,” which is why directors and department heads have been trained in team coaching.

Donato does not consider himself a “motivator”, but a “transformer of consciousness” of people. Although he confirmed that he has no experience in corruption and public management issues, he considers that it has not been an obstacle to work in Antai, since it can reach the conscience of the officials to improve their work and provide public information.

The latter contrasts with the reports of Transparency International, Panama Chapter, which reports that not all institutions are complying with open data.

At an interview with La Prensa , Donato refused to talk about his experience in corruption, transparency and public management. “At this moment I don’t feel able to answer anything, because I don’t have authorization. I know you are asking me about corruption issues, but I don’t know what to really answer you ”.

He indicated that it is the first time that he has worked for the State and that the report he gives to Antai is about the talks he gave, but does not include monitoring of their effectiveness. “That is not my job,”

Donato said  he studied a year as a coach in Argentina, in 2014, but not for a degree, although he defines himself as the person who through his workshops “has allowed young people to find the career of their life

He did not want to refer to the payment of $33,000 by Antai or the time he takes to organize his talks. Are the topics of the talks repeated? La Prensa asked . “Yes, because they ask me,” he replied.