News
Tuesday 23rd August 2022.
August 23, 2022
The Budget Commission of the National Assembly began the budget hearings for the fiscal year 2023. The nearly 82 entities that the State has must support their budgets for next year before this legislative commission, which is headed by PRD deputy Benicio Robinson. Yesterday they were due to attend the National Council of the Savings and Capitalization System for Public Servants Pensions (Siacap), the National Land Authority (Anati), the Accounts Prosecutor’s Office and the Superintendence of Banks and Securities Markets. José Gabriel Montenegro, director of Anati, supported a budget of $19,957,398, for, among other things, land regularization and titling, implementing the cadastral information system, modernizing the Tommy Guardia Institute and other investments Montenegro said that it will present a change to the Anati legislation. He also explained that they have delivered 16,400 property titles, in the different provinces of the country.During the support, the PRD deputy and vice president of the Budget Commission, Raúl Pineda, asked the director of Anati if it was true that there were checks that had been endorsed and had not been paid to the supplier. Montenegro, without specifying the number of checks, said yes. “When a check is endorsed and not paid, it is because Carlos González (director of Anati between 2014-2019), the candidate for Otro Camino, was charging the provider a bribe,” Pineda said.
Most of the people arrested for the cases of theft of supplies and medicines from the Social Security Fund (CSS) are storekeepers, that is, those in charge of dispensing the merchandise. This was stated this Monday, by the general director of the CSS, Enrique Lau Cortés, referring to the recent operations carried out to dismantle a network made up of at least 21 people who stole medical equipment and supplies from the entity “In that step in which [the merchandise] enters the warehouse and reaches the hands of the patients, in that process medicines and supplies disappear,” said Lau Cortés, in statements to TVN Noticias . “Not only is this organized crime to steal medicines being seen, there are others, we are closing the circle,” he added. There are officials who are abusing trust and “they are stealing some items from patients… we will not allow it and we will not tolerate it,” he said.
Authority (ATTT), Carlos Ordoñez, was filed this Monday, August 22, before an anti-corruption prosecutor’s office of the Public Ministry. The complaint, on behalf of the Fundación Conciencia Ciudadana and which is represented by Christian Ábrego, has to do with the closure that occurred on Sunday, at the Centenario bridge for the recording of a commercial and which, as reported later, had an ATTT permit. “After a video that circulated on social networks, about the recording of a commercial on the road over the Centenario bridge, we reported that it had the corresponding permission from @ATTTPanama. The closure was carried out for five minutes”, was the message published yesterday by the National Police, on its Twitter account.
In 2013, the Costa Rican company Meco was awarded the construction of the road interchange that would facilitate the entry and exit of the former Howard military base, today Panama Pacifico. The project was awarded for 30.5 million dollars, but 9 years later the cost of the work has risen to 43 million dollars. The scope of the work was modified to make way for the expansion to 8 lanes of the Pan-American Highway between the Bridge of the Americas and Arraiján. The Minister of Public Works, Rafael Sabonge , commented that the only thing left to do is to complete the construction of the ramps to connect the interchange accesses.
The Directorate of Traffic Operations of the National Police confirmed that the infractions registered this year for driving in a state of proven drunkenness or alcoholic breath already exceed those of last year. According to the data released, in 2021 some 5,242 infractions were administered to drivers, between alcoholic breath and proven drunkenness. However, to date, 9,452 sanctions have been recorded for the same reasons. That is, 4 thousand 210 more “In the last 72 hours, some 232 sanctions were imposed for proven drunkenness and 103 for alcoholic breath,” detailed the Traffic Operations Directorate.
Two vehicles were swept away, on the night of Sunday, by the flooding of the La Pita stream, located in the Carlos Santana Ávila district, Veraguas province. As a result of this event, one person died and five were rescued, reported the National Civil Protection System (Sinaproc). According to official reports, the driver of one of these vehicles (approximately 54 years old) was trapped, while the rest were able to get out of the cars, which was achieved after the maneuvers of the rescuers