75% of deputies flout staffing reports

The vast majority of Panama’s lawmakers each of whose labors are assisted by a score or more staff, refuse to reveal details of who they employ and how much taxpayer money they dispense.

Some 75.4% of the 71 members of the Legislature have failed to publish the list of people they  contract under the “080” plan,  and  the majority of the 11 deputies who have reported  employ family members, friends, and their personal businesses and don’t  specify what kind of work those employees do reports La Prensa,

None of the deputies of Cambio Democrático (CD) has made the data transparent, and only one of the Democratic Revolutionary Party did it.

Form 080 and the reporting  given by the deputies have been under public scrutiny since

March when the Office of the Comptroller General of the Republic announced that it would be auditing the returns.

Since 2015, the monthly budget for staffing  was increased from $4,000 to $30,000 per deputy  which  brings the  monthly tally to $2.1 million and for many deputies was the open sesame to the taxpayer-funded treasure chest

Independent deputy, Ana Matilde Gómez was the first to publish the form. She specified the names, salaries and functions of her eight employees,(later reduced to five) but omitted their cedulas. In total, the original return was  around $18,000

PRD  deputy Quibian Panay put a copy e of his return in his Twitter account.  A review by La Prensa found that 17 of the 45 names had inconsistencies: repeated cedulas, cedulas that do not coincide and alteration in declared salaries, and work functions were not specified.

Juan Carlos Arango, of the Popular Party, had 29 people,  listed who served mainly as promoters and assistants at communal meetings costing a total of $ 27,050 0 in salaries. One worked as a veterinarian, another as an electrician, there was a lawyer and a “liaison” with the Electoral Tribunal “.

Of the eight Panamenistas who disclosed their 080 form, only three detailed their personnel. José Antonio Domínguez named  36 staff  with the majority listed as “community promoter” or  “Corregimiento coordinator.”

Adolfo Beby Valderrama did not specify charges but gave work to his mother-in-law and a nephew who lives in Mexico.

None of the 25 Cambio Democrático has published a form.

The scandal of the 080 form has mobilized citizens in social networks, and as the 2019 elections draw nearer the voices will get  louder