$24 million bus compensation claims 98.2% fraudulent

$24 million  bus compensation claims 98.2%  fraudulent 

Compensation claims by the owners of Panama’s notorious diablo rojo (red devi)l  buses were 98.2%  fraudulent  says  anti-corruption prosecutor Kyra TascónT

Of the 590 “red devil” bus quotas that were analyzed  most received economic compensation from the State to which they were not entitled.

Tascón.is carrying out the investigation related to alleged irregularities in the compensation process of the “red devils” (old US school buses) , after being replaced by the Metro Bus transport system in 2010.

According to the prosecutor, only 1.8% of the economic compensations that the State paid were “honest”, the rest were “fraudulent.

“This means that most were compensated with irregularities, to which they had no right,  she said.

The prosecutor said that in the investigation it was discovered that the people who supposedly signed the procedures for compensation, at the time they are investigated, do not recognize their signatures on those documents.

She reports that groups of transporters from the city of Panama traveled to the interior to buy luxury buses that they introduced as if they had provided the transportation service in the city, in order to collect the State compensation.

It has also been detected that there were people who twice delivered the same bus.

During one of the inspections, the prosecutor found a bus with a Mañanitas-Corredor route certificate, “but when the decal was removed, there was another route underneath” she said

An audit report from the Comptroller General detected a possible patrimonial injury to the State of over $24 million or allegedly irregular payment to 590 operating certificates of the “red devils”.

In the process, 528 people have been charged, including former employees and transporters. Of that total, 399 people have surrendered reports La Prensa..

Among those charged by the prosecution are the former directors of the Land Transport Authority (ATTT) Jorge Ricardo Fábrega , Ventura Vega and Roberto Moreno; the sub-director of the entity Arturo Araúz, and the former director of the Unique Vehicular Registry  Nicolás Brea and,Franz Wever, current Secretary General of the National Assembly.

The prosecutor said that the investigation people were grouped in different situations and different facts, but with the common objective of embezzling the State.

A new line of investigation opened s when 275 certificates of operation were discovered that were not part of the audit of the Comptroller’s audit.

“Every time a test is done, it brings more and more tests, and brings more involved and more certificates of operation, to the point that right now we have almost 275 certificates of operation to investigate,” said Proscón.

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