BACKBACK SCANDAL: High delivery costs for non-deliveries

POULETT MORALES, a high end boutique owner arrived at the office the Second Anticorruption Prosecutor on June 3, fashionably dressed in white to explain, among other things, the dark secrets of how she charged $6.25 per bag for delivery and distribution of school bags in inaccessible areas that were not delivered.

  She left handcuffed after nearly 14 hours of interrogation, for the less fashionable National Police cells in Ancon.
The bags were from a contract on June 3 with the National Assistance Program (PAN) and the Ministry of Education (Meduca) obtained during the reign of Ricardo Martinelli.
 From providing dresses Marbella for the well-heeled sector of the community from her boutique in Marbella she morphed into a provider of school bags through her company APM Supplies SA.
In 2012 she pledged to deliver Meduca school bags in the provinces of Veraguas, Chiriqui, Bocas Del Toro and the Ngäbe Bugle. In 2014, Morales returned to sign another contract, with the PAN for the distribution of backpacks areas, but this time, through another of her companies. Galbedusa Comercializadora, SA. In total, the contracts signed for the delivery of 600 000 totaled $12 million.
Morales is being investigated by the prosecutor Vielka Broce Barrios for alleged offenses fraud and offenses against the public administration: embezzlement and corruption of officials.
In her preliminary statement Morales said her companies complied with the contract and delivered backpacks in areas of difficult access in 2012 and 2014, However, reports La Prensa, this version contrasts with the statements made by witnesses interviewed by the Second Anticorruption Prosecutor.
Directors of schools, teachers and supervisors of the Ministry of Education (Meduca) stated that they had to collect their backpacks in schools and departments of education storage centers and take them to their schools on their own. La Prensa cites the evidence of witnesses from indigenous communities, school teachers and directors who had to find transportation and fuel and travel to collect the bags
In one case Juan Vicente Rodriguez, regional supervisor of Education in the Ngäbe Bugle Comarca testified that the backpacks arrived at the Mwaguada school and from there he called the directors of ten schools to come and collect the product.
Yamileth Atencio, Education Coordinator in the Ngäbe Bugle, said that in 2014, the principals in the Ñurum area withdrew backpacks on their own. “No private company delivered backpacks,” he said.
After being questioned on the version of witnesses, Morales said that many schools were not delivered backpacks directly because “they went two to three times” and “found no one to receive them”.
Asked if she had evidence that the truck had actually been two or three times to schools, Morales delivered two emails dated January 19 and January 27, 2012, which allegedly reported that there was no staff to receive backpacks.
She then changed her version of some deliveries. She said that contracts had different clauses as to where the delivery of backpacks should be made and said that the 2012 agreement stated that she should deliver the product in the specific central storage site assigned by the regional director and in 2014 the contract did not specify the place of delivery.
The Morales version contrasts with the statement by former Minister of Education, Lucy Molinar, who justified the delivery price of $ 6.35 paid by Meduca because they were to be delivered to each school, including areas of difficult access.
Former Minister of Education, Lucy Molinar, also under investigation is barred from leaving the country.