New comptroller’s well-connected flock

 Gerardo Solis who has wandered through the corridors of power as an Electoral Tribunal judge, presidential candidate, and deputy has hit a speed bump as he hires a bevy of women related to members of the National Assembly and faces growing criticism

The latest is Elia Díaz Núñez, the wife of PRD)  Deputy Roberto Ábrego. She was appointed as National Director of Foreign Service, Fiscal and Commercial Incentives.

Abrego is the president of the Legislative Credentials Committee, which endorsed Solís  profile for the Comptroller  position

Virginia Ábrego, daughter of the deputy, was appointed as consul in Genoa, Italy.

Díaz arrives at the Comptroller’s Office with other sisters of PRD deputies: Rocío Rodríguez Lu, sister of deputy Zulay Rodríguez Lu; and Guadalupe Castillero, sister of Assembly President Marcos Castillero. Rodríguez Lu is the new spokeswoman for the institution, and Castillero is the director of Social Communication.

Information published in the Comptroller’s Instagram account details the work experience of Elia Díaz Nuñez: auditor by profession, who worked in the Electoral Tribunal as director of Audit and Financial Supervision. In that position, she earned a salary of $4,000 per month. Solís was a TE magistrate between 2006 and 2012.

A person with the same name appeared on the payroll of the National Bank of Panama updated until November 2019. She had the position of manager, with a salary of $3,500 per month, reports La Prensa.

In the Public Registry, Díaz appears on the board of directors of at least two corporations together with the deputy Ábrego. In Corporación de Inversiones Privada, SA, Díaz is listed as treasurer, director, and secretary, while Ábrego chairs the board.

Both are directors in a company called Romafer, SA

On Thursday on his first day in office, when questioned about the possible conflicts of interest that could be generated by having deputies’ sisters as in important positions, Solis said that The team was selected by a “system of merits and studies”. He added that he “doesn’t know” the people he chose.