OFF THE CUFF: pennies for the poor, PAN for the haves

PANAMA’S Social Security retirees will be getting a pay raise of from $20 to $50 a month, which will be retroactive to April 1, says the Ministry of Economy and Finance. The increase will cost an estimated $70 million a year.

 The ones getting $50, currently receive less than $250 a month.
Meanwhile, the man fronting Lerkshore International the offshore company with no experience in producing or importing dehydrated food, is facing criminal charges involving contracts from the National Assistance Program (PAN) that came to $60,million. He has built himself a $2.5 million mansion on a plot of land that cost over $500,000. If he is found guilty it will be a classic example of stealing from the poor to help the rich.
But he is just one of a myriad of alleged profiteers who interpreted “Assistance” as “help yourself”, and the magic phrase to open the treasure trove was CD during the Ricardo Martinelli administration. Benefactors ranged from a fashionable boutique owner who got $12 million in back pack contracts and more, and is now building a mall named after herself, to the owner of a chain of restaurants, and a former minister snapping up farming land peopled with expensive horses.
The messenger boy in awarding the contracts is reported to be the former private secretary of Martinelli, who reportedly splashed $700,000 on his wedding. Not many pensioners were invited. Meanwhile the secretary, like his mentor, is holed up in the United States.
 Meanwhile the pittance for the jubilados will be covered by an increase in taxes on gambling winnings and an increase on the fees for non-metallic mining.