Security Minister made a $480,000 signing mistake on behalf of top cop

Panama’s Security Minister, Jose Raul Mulino, yesterday described as a "mistake" the  signing of an order to pay $480,123 to police director, Gustavo Perez. 

"At best you are hunting a hare.” said Mulino, who is a lawyer, after explaining that the decree was drawn up by the police legal advisors, and that he alone signed it.

"It was wrong legal assessment" he said.

Both Mulino and Perez had previously repeated that the reinstatement of the latter in the Police, and the payment of backwages, were given under a ruling by the Criminal Chamber of the Court.

In its ruling (dated September 2010) an investigation of Perez into the alleged kidnapping of U.S. citizens during the military invasion in December 1989 was dropped. At no point did that document  state that the Criminal Court ordered the payment of back wages or reinstatement to the police.

The minister, who yesterday received an award from the president of Colombia, Juan Manuel Santos, also referred to the purchase of radar equipment from Italy, with alleged cost overruns.

He said that for the purchase of radars, Panama paid more than other countries like Turkey and Yemen, because they bought the equipment to upgrade their existing systems, while Panama made the purchase "from scratch”