Shady Mayor of San Miguelito being audited.
- By : Panama Now
- Category : Legal
https://impresa.prensa.com/panorama/Contraloria-audita-Alcaldia-San-Miguelito_0_5321467889.html
A forensic audit is carried out by the Comptroller General of the Republic in the form of the Mayor’s Office of San Miguelito, which is headed by Gerald Cumberbacht.
During the last two days, the auditors have consulted in offices located in the headquarters of the Mayor’s Office, and discovered, for example, that some workers were not in their jobs and others are not even known by their alleged colleagues.
The audit seeks to determine if there are officials who do not comply with their work schedule, informed sources of the Comptroller.
Yariela Melo, general secretary of the Mayor’s Office, confirmed to this newspaper that the auditors were installed yesterday in different offices, and assured that the municipality is cooperating with the procedure.
Cumberbacht was not in his office yesterday.
The audit will cover the period between 2014 and 2019.
Cumberbacht, under the magnifying glass
The Office of the Comptroller General of the Republic carries out an audit of the payroll of the Municipality of San Miguelito , under Gerald Cumberbacht, covering the period of July 2014 until this date.
Said payroll is made up of approximately 2 thousand people who, according to officials of the municipality, are distributed among the communal boards, municipal offices and servers in charge of the decentralization process.
Sources from the Office of the Comptroller reported that in two days of consultations in some departments and addresses located at the headquarters of the Municipality, they discovered that there are employees who were not at their job and others, even, who are not even known by those who were working in the offices.
This means was presented to the Municipality to obtain the version of Mayor Cumberbacht on the audit performed by the Comptroller, but was not in the facilities, as confirmed by the press address.
Instead, the general secretary of the Mayor’s Office, Yariela Melo, indicated to this media that she personally received the officers of the Comptroller General’s Office.
He added that yesterday these officials were installed in the Mayor’s Office, with the purpose of auditing the personnel’s forms.
Melo said that the forensic auditors of the Comptroller’s Office gave him a note signed by the authorities of that entity -whose name he did not remember- to attend them and be given all the facilities, including vehicles and physical space, as part of the cooperation to lift the corresponding report.
“It is a somewhat particular situation, because we, for example, have plant officers and field officers. So that’s a detail. We have a cemetery that is in the Chivo Chivo sector, in which more than 11 people work. We have an ornamental team that is also quite large and you will not find it here until after 1:00 pm, when you return from the day (…). You will find the forms of the communal boards, which are not physically, “explained the official.
“We have to see what the [Comptroller] is really looking for. Is it to see the check or the payment and that the person is in his position ?, because it is a very delicate situation, “he added.
‘Bottles’ at City Hall
When asked if in that municipality there are officials who charge but do not work (“bottles”), Melo replied that he does not really know, because, he explained, “bottle” is not only the one that goes on the 15th and 30th of each month only to charge, but there are also those who attend every day and do not do any work either.
In his opinion, it is a delicate matter. “I think we do not have that kind of person here, but, to be honest, I do not dare to tell you if there is or there is not,” he said.
According to the official, this is not the first time that the Comptroller has carried out such actions in the Municipality. As he recalled, a similar exercise was made at the beginning of the current administration of Cumberbacht, in 2014.
This medium also searched the official website of the Municipality of San Miguelito for the amount it pays for payroll expenses, but said information does not appear.
According to a monitoring of the Transparency and Access to Information Authority (Antai) carried out last March, the Municipality of San Miguelito has a 29% compliance with the provisions of Law 6 of 2002, which dictates rules on transparency in the Public Management.
Transition
The administration of Mayor Cumberbacht has held four meetings with the incoming mayor, Héctor Valdés Carrasquilla.
In the coming weeks, it is expected that it will deliver the report and account of the management in the period 2014-2019, as confirmed by Melo.
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