The Comptroller General of the Republic, Gerardo Solís, met this Thursday with the representatives of the Association of Mayors of Panama (ADALPA), the Association of Municipalities of Panama (AMUPA) and the Municipal Council of Panama to begin the review and evaluation of the salaries, representation expenses, mobilization expenses and allowances of the mayors and representatives of corregimiento of the country.
The president of ADAPAL, Alex Lee; the president of the AMUPA, Eliecer Cortez; the president of the Municipal Council of Panama, Abdiel Sandoya; the Mayor of the Capital, José Luis Fábrega and the National Director of the Decentralization Authority, Francisco Vigil.
The Comptroller required the councilors and mayors, in addition to the constitutional and legal support of each of their agreements, the justification and documentary information that supports the use and position of those resources.
The president of ADALPA, the mayor of the municipality of Colón, Alex Lee, maintained that the mobilization expenses are not related to the funds of the Decentralization Law, an affirmation that was corroborated by the National Director of the Decentralization Authority, Francisco Vigil. “This expenditure does not come from the decentralization law,” reiterated Vigil.
He added that the source of financing of the expenses comes from the territorial collections by tax that are obtained in each constituency, executed the previous year, independent of the decentralization funds.
The Comptroller’s Office will carefully evaluate and analyze all the information provided by each of the mayors and representatives.
The country currently has 81 mayors and 679 representatives of districts.