According to a request from lawyer Ernesto Cedeño, the entity headed by Gerardo Solís is forced to review what happens in municipalities where mayors and other officials charge representation fees that violate the Constitution.

Cedeño cited what was published last May 25 in the Official Gazette in which it is sustained that the Municipal Council of San Lorenzo approved increasing at least five times the representation expenses received by mayor of that demarcation, César Hernández, from 400 dollars a month to two thousand 100.

The lawyer affirmed that these expenses of representation look for the crude way to increase the salary of officials to the detriment of the needs of the people.

Last March, the Comptroller’s Office eliminated the payment of mobilization expenses to 81 mayors and some 679 representatives of corregimientos throughout the isthmus.

Solís himself acknowledged to the press that the measure was adopted after complaints about excessive disbursements in some municipalities for that and other budget allocations.

Earlier, on January 19, after several criticisms for juicy income in mayors and corregimientos, Solís ordered an evaluation of the salaries and expenses of representation and per diems of officials in those instances.

That study took place after 15 years of being ordered by the administration of former comptroller Carlos Vallarino.

The official specified that at least since before 2007, it was authorized to process the mobilization payments of these officials, as was being done.

The Panamanian president, Laurentino Cortizo, also reacted then to the journalistic reports about the high salaries of mayors and representatives, which exceed that of the head of state, as he explained.

The monthly salary of the president of Panama is seven thousand dollars, which includes a salary of four thousand and representation expenses of about three thousand, while there are currently councilors and mayors who receive more than ten thousand dollars, the official said.

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