Metro and Motorway company fail transparency test

IN A REPORT that shows an overall improvement in the transparency of government institutions under the current administration, The Metro and the National Motorway Company have ranked as the worst government agencies according to a report prepared by the National Authority of Transparency and Access to Information (Antai) and presented by its director Angelica Maytín on Tuesday, July 7.

On a scale from 0 to 100, the Metro earned a score of 8.3 and the National Motorway Company scored 0. The entities were judged on the amount of required information published on their respective web sites. The report evaluated 96 agencies.
Entities are required by law to publish information including the hiring of personnel and the payment of travel expenses.
The report notes that 77 of the 96 institutions scored above 50, including ones that achieved perfect scores. They included the Consumer Protection Authority, the Public Services Authority, the National Mortgage Bank, the Panama Fire Department and the Electoral Tribunal.
Maytin said that in cases of alleged nepotism 23 officials have resigned but there are “other records” waiting for response from the related institutions.
Three cases of staff receiving double salary, were identified
Maytín reported that to date the Antai has received 106 complaints of alleged administrative violations and 24 requests for access to information, of which 77 remain open files; 59 of them are awaiting a response by institutions and 18 are in the legal department of the Antai
“We have closed 53 cases that relate to complaints and requests that have been solved,” she said.

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