On the third day of the preliminary hearing of the process that follows 541 people for alleged embezzlement in the “red devils” bus compensation process in 2010, prosecutors Anilú Batista and Kyra Tascón warned that the then directors of the Traffic Authority and Terrestrial Transport (ATTT) knew of the irregularities.
When intervening, Tascón assured that the directors of the ATTT Juan Pablo Mora, Roberto Moreno, Ventura Vega and Jorge Fábrega could intervene and alert about the anomalies, but they did not do so and failed to comply with their duty of custody of public assets.
The prosecutor specified that the investigation found that the owners of buses brought from the interior of the country and that did not provide transportation services in Panama City were even compensated.
The official assured that there was a lack of control in the management of compensations, a process in which directors, deputy directors and officials did not carry out a control work and there was even a leak of information that was delivered to certain carriers about the progress of the procedures.
He said that the lack of control extended to the control officials of the Comptroller General of the Republic, who gave the go-ahead for these irregularities to remain over time, and that the files were not reviewed by the Comptroller.
Regarding the participation of the concessionaires, the prosecutor Anilú Batista assured that some from Chepo, Pedregal and San Miguelito requested the cancellation of some quotas, when they did not have the power to do so, and then assigned them to third parties and requested their compensation. She explained that the cancellations of the quotas and their reassignment were made through notes sent to the ATTT, written by hand, with strikethroughs and even undated. Some owners were even unaware of the cancellation of their quotas.
