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Viernes 23 de octubre de 2026
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Dismissals and resignations after detecting corruption network

Redacción (nacion.pa@epasa.com) | @PanamaAmerica

More than 10 senior and middle officials were dismissed on Monday at the Ministry of Education (Meduca) for alleged irregularities in hiring and purchases of the institution.

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More than 10 senior and middle officials were dismissed on Monday at the Ministry of Education (Meduca) for alleged irregularities in hiring and purchases of the institution.

 

The information was confirmed yesterday by the Minister of Education, Marcela Paredes, noting that, after performing a "balance", they found repeated errors in the evaluation reports of bids in the data up to the purchase site Panama Compras, and multiple rectifications by the Comptroller against acts Meduca purchase.

 
 

The dismissed officials were part of the key cog in the Meduca purchases controlling from the tender documents to adjudication.

 

 
"We are concerned about the multitude of flaws in the way. We have any number of bids that are delayed because there are claims in the Court of Procurement, rectifications of Comptroller. When you make a balance, even though mistakes are mistakes, but when this are repetitive it leave chance for doubt and definitely trust is lost", Paredes said.

 

However, the minister said that so far there is no official investigation by prosecutors. She said only between cases that generated suspicions or doubts against this group of employees the option of implementing an audit.

 
 

Among those dismissed are Ivanessa Mojica Monday González, managing director of Meduca; Próspero Carrion, head of Procurement; the members of the National Curriculum Directorate, between 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 failed  processes had to go through him, and to this obvious situation of multiple failures, he submitted his resignation", Paredes, who agreed that all the dismissed officials were appointed under her administration said.

 

"The dismissed people came in this administration; We didn't knew all of them, the all had excellent resume, but given this situation from my perspective, they lost my trust. You can't work with a team that hasn't full confidence in the commitment and transparency",said Education Minister to try to explain the scandal that splashes on the institution.

 

The Meduca yesterday replaced the head of purchasing, and are in the process of selecting the direction of the administrative staff and curriculum linked to the preparation of the specifications by the tenders.

 

"In 2016 we have very ambitious targets and we want to build 50 new schools, and if each of these processes will be subject to claims and rectifications Comptroller ask us, we will not achieve goals", said Paredes, who avoided the issue to perform a deep or report the case to the Public Prosecutor's investigation.

 

Among the bids that had problems or that have come with complaints to the Court of Public Procurement is the science labs, an act that was canceled last week amid the scandal that came to light after the layoffs on Monday .

 

This contract worth $1.5 million, a group of bidders had noted that the statement of objections that were addressed included specifications to favor one brand or specific company.

 

Same happened before, in the bidding for the electronic boards by $1.3 million, for which a group of bidders complained and filed claims for the same reasons, specifications out of reach.

 

However , in this case it proceeded to award the contract to the company Edupan, despite the claims.

 

In 2015, the auction of musical instruments, in which the evaluation committee disqualified three of the four bidders, including Distribuidora Musical, was also given for failure to file financial statements; Productor Superiores (Supro) because they didn't present ISO certification translated into Spanish, and Foto Plaza, for failure to file financial statements and ISO certification.

 

However, the Meduca continued the process with the offers of companies.

 

The act of buying musical instruments reached the Court of Public Procurement, where the judges ruled that the tender had been manipulated or flawed. 

 

After that, Meduca diverted resources to National Assistance Program (PAN), where the awarded the company   Productos Superiores S.A  several direct purchase, the same that had been disqualified before.

Marcela Paredes, education minister. / Archive

PAN Meduca diverted resources for multiple purchases . / Archive

'Failures are made up'

‘Cifra de fracasos está maquillada’

Las cifras que publicó el Ministerio de Educación en referencia a los estudiantes que reprobaron materias, está maquillada, aseguró el dirigente del Frente Nacional de Educadores Independientes (Frenei), Luis López.

El docente afirmó que hay más de 90,000 estudiantes que fracasaron en 2015, entre los que rehabilitan, repiten el año y los de escuela primaria que reprobaron en varias materias. 

“Estos últimos no son tomados en cuenta porque se toma en cuenta el promedio final. Si los evaluamos materia por materia, es allí donde está el problema”, manifestó López.

Por su parte, Diógenes Sánchez, secretario general de la Asociación de Profesores (Asoprof), señaló que no hay una política coherente en materia educativa, porque se hicieron cambios en la educación básica general, de los cuales no se conocen los resultados. 

Tampoco hay un informe final en la implementación de la Transformación Curricular y esto, afirmó Sánchez, demuestra la gran improvisación de todas las administraciones, “que tienen un librito distinto”.

En tanto, Yadira Pino, dirigente magisterial, señaló que las cifras más alarmantes son las de los estudiantes que repiten el año escolar, que está entre 40,000 y 50,000. “Esta es una situación que no se resuelve, porque las autoridades no están mirando lo vital. Este gobierno solo se está enfocando en Panamá Bilingüe y la Jornada Única”, aseveró.

Datos

2 licitaciones han sido objeto de reclamos, por lo que el proceso fue suspendido.

2015 en este año se descalificó a 3 de los 4 ofertantes en la compra de instrumentos musicales.

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