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- 23/09/2009 02:00
PANAMA. There have been 275 complaints of corruption made against almost 50 public offices to the Attorney General in the first two and...
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Agrega La Estrella en Google ↗️PANAMA. There have been 275 complaints of corruption made against almost 50 public offices to the Attorney General in the first two and a half months of the Martinelli administration.
The exact amount of public funds allegedly mis-used has not been quantified but, combined with cases languishing in the courts, runs into over $20 million with more cases not yet listed.
The Ministry of Education, Social Security Office, Agricultural Development Bank and the Ministry of Health have the most complaints against them.
The concern now is whether there are sufficient resources within the Attorney General’s office to give each case the investigative attention it deserves.
“There are many limiting factors but the main one is shortage of money,” anti-corruption prosecutor Ramses Barrera said.
The five biggest corruption cases are the Prados del Este project ($12,198,790) which is awaiting resolution in the 10th Circuit Courts; the el Tucan Museum project ($4,438,337) which is awaiting the removal of privileges so that it can be investigated; the Mar del Sur Foundation ($3,050,060) which is awaiting resolution by the Supreme Court; the Flanqueadoras Machines SA investigation ($1,831,812) which is due to be heard for the first time on December 15; and the FECE case which allegedly misused $1,568,064 of state funds and is now being decided in the Second Court.
There are also 22 non-governmental organisations awaiting investigations to clarify their use of Special Social Fund (FIS) donations which are intended to help the extremely poor and for cases of urgent need.
”These and other cases must be investigated with all the rigour of the law and those responsible for mis-using public funds must be punished with jail sentences,” Transparency International’s Angelica Maytin said.
But: “There is also concern that some of the biggest white collar cases are not being prosecuted...The figures clearly show that most of the people convicted are for low profile cases and not high level civil servants,” Maytin said.
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