Assembly corruption probe stymied
PANAMA’S National Assembly has effectively shut down a corruption investigation of its officials by failing to provide information required by Anti-Corruption Prosecutors.
The Public Ministry Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office has asked the Judicial Body to file the investigation of Assembly officials for the supposed misuse of scores of thousands of dollars allocated to grants and contracts for professional services.
Sources at the Public Ministry confirmed to La Prensa that the request of prosecutor Javier Miter Burgos is based on the lack of key information for the surveys.
Miter requested information lin July from the National Assembly on the contracts of personnel for professional services and donations, but it has not been delivered , which is why he was forced to request the provisional dismissal of the process.
The investigation began on the basis of a complaint filed on April 20 by the Foundation for the Development of Citizen’s Freedom, a Panamanian chapter of Transparency International, against five officials of the National Assembly and one of the Municipality of Veraguas, accused of the alleged commission of crimes against public administration.
The officials identified in the complaint were named in an investigation published by La Prensa during the week of March 6 to 11, related to donations that in the majority of the cases were not received by the beneficiaries, and contracts for professional services that were not provided.
The irregularities would have occurred during the last two legislative periods, 2015-2016 and 2016-2017, both presided over by PRD deputy Rubén De León.
Among those reported are the coordinator of the donation process and advisor to the Presidency of the Assembly, Teófilo Gálvez; and the secretary of the president, Isabel Araúz.
Also denounced are: Ismael Frías, assigned to the office of CD deputy Juan Poveda, (who allegedly managed temporary contracts for his nephew for almost $10,000 and checks for thousands of dollars to cover alleged donations for home expenditures) and Marisela Araúz, assigned to the audit office of the Comptroller
in the Assembly .and Raúl Moreno, from the Assembly Technical Secretariat for Social Affairs who approved professional services for thousands of dollars to third parties who many times they did not provide services.
Finally, reports La Prensa, the complaint points to Luis Cruz, Secretary General of the Municipality of Santiago (Veraguas), who received $20,000 in donations to allegedly support the Santiago Apostle celebration , and another $ 2,400 for a trip to China.
He was denounced for allegedly using “public money for purposes other than their functions”.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court rejected a habeas data request from lawyer Ernesto Cedeño, in which he asked the Comptroller’s Office for information on the amount paid by the State in the form of grants authorized by the National Assembly.
However, the Comptroller’s Office denied the delivery of the information to Cedeño ast the entity competent to resolve the petition is the Assembly, since the Comptroller’s Office does not have the original documents of the endorsements and cannot deliver authenticated copies
With the presentation of the magistrate Luis Ramón Fábrega, the plenary resolved the habeas data on August 29 and concluded that it cannot compel an entity to deliver information that it does not have.
