For this purpose, the president appointed lawyer and professor Miguel Antonio Bernal, who told La Prensa newspaper that such restructuring and modernization of the State means a ‘reduction of the government’, that is to say, of countless positions that represent ‘excessive bureaucratization’ for such a small country, both demographically and geographically.

In a conversation with communicators last week, Mulino himself indicated that the next president in 2029 will find a more articulated government that will function much better than the one he has in his hands right now.

In this country there will be a new Constitution, as it should be, and everyone will be educated on the constitutional issue, and everyone will have the opportunity to give their opinion on proposals and reforms’, he said at the time.

The current cabinet is made up of 16 ministries -two more than there were in 2019-; the National Assembly has 71 deputies and there are 81 mayor offices and 701 townships.

In this sense, Bernal said that they will start a process towards an original constituent assembly, which implies full citizen participation without exclusion of any sector.

The next step, according to the jurist, would be the conformation of the commission by the President of the Republic, with the endorsement of the Cabinet Council, to then enter into a whole planning process to do things in the most scientific way.

When asked what the restructuring of the Government involves, the professor said that, in the current circumstances of a ‘huge amount of corruption’ that has been found in all the public institutions, it would be necessary to start by seeing how to put a series of obstacles to it.

Bernal remarked that the first thing to do before executing any change is to duly inform the population, so that there is the transparency that corresponds to this type of tasks.

The Panamanian Constitution, drafted during the military dictatorship and in force since 1972, has been reformed five times, the last one in 2004.

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