The Comptroller General of the Republic suspended the mobilization expenses that until recently received mayors and representatives of the country, but the benefit is still controversial.
Indeed, the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office requested information on the matter from the Administration Attorney, Rigoberto González, as a result of an investigation into the alleged commission of the crime of embezzlement in the communal board of Ernesto Córdoba Campos.
In a letter sent last February to the prosecutor’s office, Attorney General González warned, among other things, that allocating such high and, in turn, “individualized” amounts puts the municipality’s fiscal assets at risk, and recalled that “many” of the municipalities are subsidized “and face economic limitations that cannot be subsidized due to lack of budget.”
Ernesto Córdoba Campos is a village in the north of the capital and his representative is Rubén Medina, from Cambio Democrático.
Last February, the deputy anti-corruption prosecutor, Erika Pinilla, asked the Administration Attorney’s Office, in charge of Rigoberto González, for an opinion on what use should be made of mobilization expenses in accordance with the Decentralization Law?
González based his answer on an opinion that he had already given on the subject in March 2020: that no state entity other than the Ministry of Economy and Finance can make modifications, include concepts or pretend to use budget codes for another purpose not described in the Public Expenditure Budget Classification Manual.
Likewise, that in order to recognize them, the authority in charge must determine when to grant them and that the official to whom this benefit is given must submit a report, in which he details the mission he carried out, since otherwise it would be “unfeasible” to grant expenses of transport when these transfers are made with vehicles of the entity, since municipal funds would be affected.
In addition, allocating such high amounts and, at the same time, “individualized”, puts at risk the fiscal assets of the municipality.
González also raised these arguments in a letter that he sent to Comptroller Gerardo Solís at the end of last January, after he blamed him for not making a thorough review of the payments of these expenditures, which, he said, had been running for 15 years.
The MP is investigating two other complaints related to mobilization expenses, presented by the lawyer Abdiel González. One is against Comptroller Solís for the alleged commission of crimes against the public administration in the form of abuse of authority and violation of the duties of public servants and, according to MP sources, it is active.
The other is against the mayor of Arraiján, Rollyns Rodríguez, and the eight corregimiento representatives of that district of Panamá Oeste.
