Plundering lawmakers stall Transparency Authority

Panama’s Transparency and Access to Information Authority (Antai)  has made a third request to the National Assembly to deliver authenticated copies of staff contracts and expense reports of lawmakers.

The Assembly, which for months has been dodging similar requests from the Comptroller General, asked for an additional extension of 30 days to “collect information, “according to an August 1 note.

In the first  request, the Antai asked the Legislature to publish the contracts (Form172) on the web and comply with the habeas data ruling granted by the Supreme Court of Justice to La Prensa,

The second request required the publication of the trusted staff of the deputies ( Form 080).

“I allow myself to ask you, within the term of the Law, to send us copies duly authenticated of all the return 172, and the No 04 and No 02, corresponding to all the personnel assigned to each of them, whether permanent or temporary, by contract or any other status used by this State Organ, since on the website of the National Assembly, the information requested it is not identified in a clear and disaggregated form, “says the letter signed by the Director of the Antai, Angelica Maytin, and received in the Assembly July 6 .

“The required information must contain the standards that all public sector payroll maintains that is, name, as well as any other information that results from relevance to the entity that you chair, “adds the letter.

Form 04 corresponds to the “transitory personnel for investments “and Form  02” temporary staff salaries.

Last year each deputy disposed of at least one million dollars between payroll 080, 172 and 02, a  conclusion that was arrived at based on the executed budgets of the institution and facilitated by the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF).

A  La Prensa investigation showed that the professional services contracts (payroll 172) went to people with limited resources who did not provide any service to the Assembly and that by changing the check received between 5 to 10% of the contract amount. The difference returned to the deputy

The Comptroller has been investigating these contracts since March 2017.