They are opposed to the proposed law, which penalizes those who post bail for good performance

President Laurentino Cortizo has partially opposed a bill to remove a public official who allows the expiration of a bond in public contracts and for the state ministry to investigate his official conduct.

This initiative, which was presented in October 2021 by the deputy of the PRD, Roberto Ayala, and supported by other supporters, was proposed in view of the countless amount of public works that have been paralyzed, which hurts the state treasury.

“This situation reflects another reality… and that is the degree of responsibility that must exist, on the part of those executive officials whose signature appears or must appear in the authorization of compliance bonds and who allow said buildings to remain in the ruins of the state,” indicated the deputy in the explanation of the project.

One of the complaints of lawyers, defense attorneys and defendants in high-profile cases handled under Juan Carlos Varela’s government was that officials in his administration allowed the guarantee of compliance to expire with the alleged intent of Ricardo Martinelli Berrocalo’s law enforcement agencies.

One of these cases was that of the Tonosí irrigation system, in which the lawyers, who preferred to withhold their names, believed that “there was more interest in initiating criminal proceedings than using the bonds agreed in the contract” and that “by claiming that the bonds weakened many of the arguments used by the prosecution to indict more than 33 people,” according to the July 19, 2016 Panama America publication.

Article 1 of project 807 provides that the official’s dismissal will be pronounced after the completion of the appropriate administrative procedure, without prejudice to the appropriate civil and criminal procedures.

However, Cortizo objected to the inconvenience of dismissal due to guilt or fraud, as stated in the project, because these concepts are of a criminal nature, which is not the authority to define in administrative proceedings.

“It could affect investigations that will be conducted within the sphere of jurisdiction to determine the existence of those same elements, which is why the wording is awkward,” the president said.

On the other hand, Cortizo disagrees with the sanction of eight years of disqualification for an official who has been dismissed from public office, which is mentioned in the 807 project.

According to the president, this violates Article 32 of the Constitution, which stipulates that no one may be tried for the same criminal case except before the competent body, and only once.

The President once again calls for the drafting of a legal proposal, because it is not mentioned that this exclusion is a secondary measure in addition to the punishment, which could be interpreted as double jeopardy.

“In any case, it should be typified in the Criminal Code and it would be up to the criminal judge to apply it,” says Cortizo.

Since the veto was partial, lawmakers can accept the president’s recommendations, approve them, and send them back to the executive branch for consideration.