Meduca corruption, now in the hands of the Antai

The scandal over an alleged corruption in the Ministry of Education (Meduca) came to the National Authority of Transparency and Access to Information (Antai), after the Minister Marcela Paredes confirmed the dismissal of a group of senior officials and means controlling the processes of bidding and purchasing in this entity.

The network would also have helped companies that participated in acts of tender without presenting irreparable documents have awarded contracts. This is the case of Consorcio Escuela Don Bosco, which was awarded the February 6, 2015 a contract for $7.3 million, although the report of the evaluation commission warned that the technical building and civil engineer assigned by the company's work showed no copy of the decision of the Technical Board of Engineering and Architecture.

According to the minister Paredes, layoffs occurred on Monday, after making multiple "balance" which found repeated errors in the evaluation reports of bids on the information up to the site Panama Compras and rectifications by the Comptroller against acts Meduca purchase.

Among the destitute people are Ivanessa Mojica Gonzalez, managing director of Meduca; Próspero Carrion, head of purchasing; and members of the national leadership curriculum, among another group of officials involved in procurement processes of the organization.

The minister Paredes also confirmed the resignation of the head of the legal department of Meduca, Luis Cedeno Merel. "All processes that failed has to go through him, and to this obvious situation of multiple failures, he submitted his resignation," said Paredes, who accepted that all officials dismissed on Monday were named under her management..

However, the complaint filed yesterday before the Antai, to which Panama America had access, revealed other details of the corruption case in which other officials mentioned were not fired on Monday .

According to the document, Mojica was the coordinator of tenders in the Meduca, and together with other key officials controlled the process from the creation of projects to recovery and formulation of objections. All in favor of certain companies, the complaint said.

The Minister was clear, officials were removed for lack of confidence and even noted that in several cases this will be a reason to open an audit. However, she said that there is still an ongoing investigation by the Attorney General.

According to the complaint Antai, in irregular purchases that have been handled by this network are chairs, furniture, boards, laboratory equipment, computers, musical instruments and others products.

The document also notes that Mojica saved direct links with the company Eduholding. "If Antai make a research, they will find that the company has won several tenders, including the purchase of school chairs for $4 million in 2015. There are internal reports on Meduca that most of these chairs are already damaged", reads the complaint.

Another of the points raised in the complaint was the bidding for musical instruments on May 27, 2015 , a case that reached the Court of Public Contracting, which issued a ruling that declared "flawed from the act of creating tender specifications fees and terms".

The complaint details that the statement of objections of the tender was made by Ivanessa Mojica and director of art and culture on Meduca, José Matías Muñoz , supposedly for Productos Superiores S.A company because the required specifications are related to their brand.

Datos

Planteamiento

Diógenes Sánchez, secretario general de la Asociación de Profesores de la República (Asoprof), señaló que Paredes cometió un error, por lo que hay muchos proyectos educativos que se verían truncados.

Malos manejos

En tanto, Abel Herrera, secretario general de la Asociación de Educadores de Veraguas (Aeve), sostuvo que este gremio sospechaba hace meses sobre presuntos malos manejos de fondos dentro del Meduca. "Nosotros le habíamos solicitado a la ministra Paredes que nos facilitara la información de las auditorías que supuestamente se vienen realizando en la institución".