Taxi war heats up

PANAMA. An internal battle over the issuing of provisional taxi permits in Panama City and Chiriqui has opened a Pandora’s box within the Transport Authority (ATTT), resulted in the resignation of its vice-director, Roberto Moreno, polarized the capitals’s taxi drivers and prompted one faction to plan to drive in convoy and block the city streets.

This was the fall-out of a meeting between the executive directors of the ATTT and the Ministry of the Presidency, which resulted in 200 taxi permits being suspended until the circumstances under which they were issued can be clarified.

According to the ATTT director, Sandra Escorcia, the 200 provisional operations permits that Moreno signed into effect in July for Panama Oeste distrit were unauthorised.

She is backed up by - and allegedly has a recording of - some taxi drivers who say that the permits were not distributed in a transparent manner and that money changed hands with Moreno “under the table”.

Moreno, for his part, denies the allegations. “I didn’t charge any money. Provisional operations permits are free. I was just signing for a decision that was taken by the Executive during the transition on 14 May 2009.” he said. He is “100 percent” in favor of the investigation.

He is backed up by the ATTT’s former director, Heraclio Batista, who acknowledged that the decision to give out an additional 300 provisional taxi permits was signed under his administration in May 2009.

He said that a study by the ATTT’s Projects and Development department showed that more taxis were needed in Panama Oueste because of the increase in the number of residents.

The head of the taxi driver’s association, Dionel Bruce, also defends Moreno. “He hasn’t done anything illegal. Those permits were authorised before,” he said.

Taxi drivers in Arraijan, some of whom received some of the 200 disputed permits, agreed to drive in convoy to the doors of the ATTT and then block the road.

The point of contention for Escorcia seems to be not only that money may have changed hands, but that the permits were signed into effect in July, when she was absent from Panama on a working trip to Chile, and Moreno was acting director.

However Escorcia is, in turn, facing allegations by ATTT transport leader, Hugo Polo, that she illegally issued 276 operations permits for Chiriqui when only 200 were approved.

Polo also said that Escorcia had closed down the office where permits were issued.

Escorcia refuted the accusations, saying that she had rescinded 104 permits that were issued under the previous administration and then re-issued 76 of them after they were re-approved by the ATTT board.

After listening to their squabbles, Jimmy Papadimitriu Minister in charge of the Presidency, and Jose Raul Mulino Minister for Government and Justice, passed the matter to the anti-corruption squad for further investigation.

Papadimitriu later announced that next week the Cabinet will consider a project to create a new Ministry for Road Infrastructure and Transport which will combine the functions of the ATTT and the Ministry of Public Works. The new ministry would be in charge of coordination and planning of road transport, including the regulation of transport operations permits.

It would also be required to work closely with the secretary in charge of the planned metro project in the capital city.