Ballooning government ad spending lacks ethics former electoral judge

GOVERNMENT SPENDING  on self-promoting advertising has become a major concern for Panama society, says a former Electoral Tribunal (TE), magistrate.

Guillermo Márquez Amado, said Sunday, June 23 that overspending in this way "conflicts with society itself. "

Marquez Amado said it also conflicts with the "ethics that should prevail in society because those resources are being squandered on things that are not necessary".
He said that advertising campaigns, from the State, should be educational and of social interest in order to be useful to society and not for candidates or political parties.
Carlos Gasnell, representative of the Transparency International Chapter in Panama, said that while all governments have abused government advertising, "this administration has abused even more in terms of lack of boundaries and in terms of content ".
That is why suggested by the civil society should promote and require candidates for president of the Republic to commit to "self-limiting of abuses regarding the lack of boundaries and contents".
The two speakers on TVN, agreed on the need to create social campaigns and educational interest, creating balance between political propaganda and educational essages.
The Ministry of the Presidency, headed by Roberto Henriquez, committed in the first quarter of this year 90% of the advertising budget for all of 2013. He spent $5.1 million of the $ 5.7 million it had planned to invest .
In late April, only $ 521,000 was left for the next eight months, according to an official of the state institution.
It is unknown how much the present administration has spent on government advertising during its four years in office.