Varela’s year of corruption cleansing

THE MASSIVE uncovering of corruption scandals within the Ricardo Martinelli administration  and a the auditing and cleansing of multiple government instititutions has beeen the most prominent feature of the first year in office of President Juan Carlos Varela.

The depth of the malaise, the worst in the country’s history, has surprised even the strongest critics of Martinelli. Prosecutors and the Supreme Court are struggling to manage voluminous files, with each new investigation revealing more strands of the corruption web leading back to the presidential palace.

In the eyes of Martinelli and his spokesmen it is all “political persecution.
It all started, says La Prensa, in November 2014 with the arrest of former director of the National Assistance Program (PAN) Rafael Guardia Jaen  who had some $20 million tucked away in local and foreign banks and was purchasing luxury properties for himself.
Since then, there have been seizures of property, bank accounts,yachts and other symbols of the pilfering of the public purse. Totaling over $140 million, reports La Prensa.
Just over half the Martinelli cabinet is under investigation. Three former ministers are in prison: Guillermo Ferrufino (Social Development); Frank De Lima (ECOFIN) and Oscar Osorio (Agricultural Development). There are 11 ongoing investigations of alleged ”anomalies” in the PAN
The scandal touched the president himself when another former director of PAN, Giacomo Tamberelli testified under oath Martinelli ordered him make the contract and appoint the company for the purchase of dehydrated food costing by $.44.5 million. In May, the Supreme Court opened an investigation into the case.
Meanwhile, on 12 January the eavesdropping scandal erupted for which two former directors of the National Security Council Gustavo Perez and Alejandro Garuz , a relative by marriage to Martinelli, are in jail awaiting trial and the Supreme Court has opened another investigation into Martinelli himself.
Another scandal that has rocked the country is related to the contract of Cobranzas del Isthmus which billed $47.1 million in commissions for collecting delinquent taxes. In this investigation, the main shareholder of the company , Cristobal Salerno, returned $20.6 million for an allegedly illegal collection from Tocumen SA
Salerno told prosecutors that he regularly gave Martinelli bags of money for $400,000 and $600,000 from commissions he received. He also said he gave $6.8 million to Luis Cucalón, former head of the Directorate of Revenue (DGI). Cucalón is also detained.
Another high-profile investigation is the alleged diversion of money from the contract for the failed Tonosí irrigation project for which Martinelli’s government paid $37.1 million with no progress made. The former vice-president Felipe Virzi, said Martinelli told him how to distribute payments of money from Hidalgo & Hidalgo, the company behind the project.
CURRENT CLOUDS
Meanwhile, the case of nepotism by Edwin Cardenas who left the Agricultural Marketing Institute; and Grimaldo Cordoba, former head of health promotion accused of not a license to practice medicine are scandals that have affected the image of the new government, and recently the awarding of contracts worth over $2.5 billion have raised concerns among even strong supporters of Varela.