Panama’s Mayor investigating his predecessor

From the sidelines

Mayor Bosco Vallarino,  wants to be taken seriously, but the soap opera continuesThe day after he got the resignation of the team responsible for his pain, he  revealed on Tuesday that he and his team are conducting  investigations into the former administration of the Municipality.

He didn’t mention whether the team was the one he fired on Monday or the new team he says will be in place in a week.
Vallarino said that, so far, they have identified "five possible cases" that would bring former mayor, Juan Carlos Navarro, to the prosecution bench. Navarro is the one that left the city bankrupt after 10 years in office according to Bosco at Monday’s "I’m gonna stay" press conference.
He revealed on  news program Telemetro Report a "special audit report” that indicates alleged wrongdoing or misuse of extra-budgetary funds.
He added that the report relates to Christmas festivities, but did not specify the year. "My forensic accountants tell me that so far we may be talking about $83,000- $600,000," he said.That’s quite a spread.
No mention of Bosco’s own Yule tide extravagances with his no-bid contracts to insiders for the abortive Christmas Villages on the Cinta Costera. 

MeanwhileThe Ministry of Health has got the go ahead for the contracting of an urban cleaning service for a renewable period of seven months in the district capital.
That’s the service that was taken out of the mayor’s hands as garbage piled up on the streets of Panama.

In April, the Cabinet approved an extraordinary credit of $3.1 million for rental of equipment and staffing for the collection of solid waste in the 21 townships of the district capital, 

Could the timing of the investigation announcement  be linked to the public reminder of the failure of the handling of the  garbage crisis?… What spin meisters call "a diversionary tactic." Surely not.As a foonote, earlier this year the mayor’s salary was garnisheed to pay a fine imposed in a slander case, launched against Vallarino by the former for comments he made during the election campaign.

The Soap continues.

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