News
Wednesday 24th July 2024.
July 23, 2024
One reality has become evident with the establishment of the first permanent working committees of the National Assembly : political parties have demonstrated a tacit consensus to control the directives of these legislative bodies.
They already did it with the Economy and Finance Committee , whose president is Ronald De Gracia of the Realizing Goals Party (RM) . It also happened with Credentials, where the RM deputy Shirley Castañeda was chosen, and with Budget, with Sergio Gálvez of the same party.
The last case was the Municipal Affairs Commission , where the Panamanian deputy from Coclé, Jorge Herrera, emerged as president.
For Janine Prado, a member of the independent coalition Vamos, it has been “definitely” seen up to now that the political parties have had internal discussions and have come up with an established proposal for the vote.
“In many cases they mention governability, something that I believe is wrong because, beyond the fact that everything that is good should be supported, no matter where it comes from, one should also know how to oppose anything that is not good,” said the deputy.
Regarding the controversial election of Castañeda to the Credentials Committee, Prado mentioned that she is a lawyer who has important cases that could even be considered a “conflict of interest” with respect to the position she assumed.
As you may recall, Castañeda is part of the team defending former President Ricardo Martinelli, and is the lawyer of Jorge Camargo Clarke, alias “Cholo Chorrillo,” sentenced to 70 months in prison for money laundering and extradited to the United States.
In addition to ratifying the appointments made by the Executive, this commission has an important mission: it is the one that can put the magistrates of the Supreme Court of Justice and the President of the Republic himself in the dock. In total, this body of the Assembly has 12 functions, according to the provisions of the Organic Regulations of the Internal Regime.
Regarding the search for support from other deputies, Prado mentioned that in all the commissions they continue to open conversations and “establish bridges” with other deputies to become part of some board of directors.
“If this is not the case, it will not be on our part that bridges were not built,” he said.
He also left a message to the representatives of political parties after their role in the installation of the first commissions: “I believe that they will have to be accountable to the citizens at all times. We will work to oversee and inform the citizens of all the work that is carried out in the National Assembly.”
For the third time, President José Raúl Mulino has attacked the poor service provided by the energy company, Naturgy.
According to the message on his X account, the president of Panama assured that the air conditioning of the room where the Cabinet Council was to be held, this Tuesday, July 23, was damaged due to the constant power outages. This forced the weekly meeting to be relocated.
This complaint adds to those previously made by the president before he had taken office, in which he stated that he was forced to install a power plant at his residence in the Altos del Golf area of San Francisco.
Similarly, on July 10, the capital’s mayor, Mayer Mizrachi, reported that his office lost power just as he was having a telephone conversation with authorities from the Municipality of Tel Aviv, Israel.
On July 15, the National Public Services Authority (ASEP) imposed a fine of 14 million dollars on the Metro-Oeste Electric Distribution Company, SA (EDEMET) and the Chiriquí Electric Distribution Company, SA (EDECHI), both part of the Naturgy group , for failing to comply with current service quality standards in the area of electricity.
The Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise Authority (Ampyme) has rented a vacant lot of 3,792.60 square meters, for which it pays $11,646.69 per month, to use it as a parking lot and, occasionally, as a fairground and training center.
The land is next to the Ampyme headquarters, on Via Israel, opposite the Richard Neumann school . In fact, both properties are linked to the same business group.
The vacant lot was leased directly , based on a market study released in June 2023, which specified that the entity required the land next to its headquarters.
Ampyme claims that it did not call for a public event because there was no other plot of land of at least 3,500 square meters that was less than 20 meters from its headquarters, according to the market study. “This is for security reasons for entrepreneurs who bring their products for sale at fairs, symposiums, training sessions and other activities that take place in the facilities of building 96,” the study states.
“ We have used this parking area free of charge for two calendar years , which has allowed us to carry out successful activities such as training fairs, technical assistance for entrepreneurs and businessmen, the Global Entrepreneurship Week and recently the First Coffee Fair,” he added.
“There is no free parking or paid parking area, which would make it impossible to carry out fair-type activities, as well as training activities that are practically carried out daily in person at our facilities.”
The lease is for 21 months, between July 1, 2023 and March 31, 2025. The Ampyme technical report acknowledges that the land was “usufructed” for two years, when there was still no firm contract.
There is also the detail that the market study that supports the need to lease the lot is from June 2023, one month before the entity occupied the property.
The contract amount is $244,580.49 or $11,646.69 per month, excluding the amount corresponding to the tax, to rent these parking spaces.
Although the lot has a parking capacity of 100 vehicles, La Prensa found that the site was partially unused. There were cars from the entity, trucks and garbage. It was not clean or tidy and there was nothing to indicate that the place was used for fairs, except for some dirty awnings. It also does not seem to be a suitable place for training of any kind.
The land has a flat surface, with asphalt or gravel coating, with lights and water.
The payments are received by APB Chairman, Inc. , but the “letter of intent-lease of parking lot-Ampyme”, for the years 2023, 2024 and 2025 was sent to the General Management of Ampyme by Farsalia Int., SA , the company that since 2021 has a contract to lease the building in front of Richard Neumann that serves as Ampyme’s headquarters.
APB Chairman and Farsalia Int. share the same president: Luis Raúl Bravo Quintero .
For the office building, Ampyme pays a monthly rent of $52,358.60, plus $3,665.10 in monthly ITMBS.
If you add to that the cost of occupying the lot next door, that means that Ampyme pays $67,670.39 every month for the office building and parking spaces.
The Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office is conducting an on-site inspection of the San Francisco Communal Board on Tuesday morning, July 23, following reports of alleged irregularities during the previous administration.
An expert from the Institute of Forensic Medicine and Sciences is taking part in the investigation. He was in charge of inspecting the technological equipment of the local council, including desktop computers.
On July 4 , the current representative of San Francisco, Serena Vamvas , filed a criminal complaint for alleged crimes against computer security, public administration and economic assets.
The legal action was filed one day after publicly denouncing that the accounting system on the board’s computers had been erased.
At the time, he explained that the previous administration, led by PRD member Carlos Pérez Herrera, informed him that the lack of data from the accounting system on the technological equipment was caused by an alleged fluctuation that also affected the backups.
Vamvas also publicly denounced that he found financial disarray in that board, as well as withholding of Social Security contributions and deterioration of facilities. Additionally, he received a debt of $170 thousand.
Pérez Herrera was a representative of San Francisco for 20 years. In a statement, the former representative said that “during the transition period” all information was provided to the new authorities.
He said that during the meeting “there was no questioning or request for further information on the situations that, after our departure, caused displeasure or surprise, so we flatly reject the allegations that the board is bankrupt, in debt, without decent infrastructure.”
Panama national soccer team midfielder Adalberto Coco Carrasquilla is among the nominees for the Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Football (Concacaf) Player of the Year for the 2023-2024 season.
Concacaf announced the list of nominees for Player of the Year on Tuesday, July 23, and the opening of fan voting at www.concacaf.com/awards . In addition, national team coaches and captains will also vote to determine the winners.
Concacaf announced that the voting period will end on August 2.
“The nominees for the 2023/24 season have been selected based on performance statistics and input from football experts,” the organisation said in a statement.
Carrasquilla has been one of the most outstanding figures of the Panamanian national team in recent years.