Newsroom Panama put out a La Presna article  concerning  politicians and credit unions.

The Office of the Comptroller General of the Republic publicized the finding of alleged “botellas “, officials who allegedly collected their salaries without working, in an institution that was little examined by the public: the Panamanian Autonomous Cooperative Institute (Ipacoop). This institution is key to the good management of an important sector of our economy;[credit unnions] however, this mattered little to the politicians who apparently turned it into booty. But this form, unlike the 002 and the 080, does not belong to the National Assembly. On the contrary, it is controlled by the Executive. Every penny that the government spends belongs to us and costs us citizens in the form of taxes, fees and other taxes, which could be oriented towards more productive, edifying or common interest purposes. The finding also reflects a segment of the work culture in the country: there are people who prefer to live as parasites of state funds, to work and strive to develop new job skills to obtain a decent job. These are the results of clientelism and paternalism. That is why, in the unimaginable jungle of the Panamanian bureaucracy, hundreds of millions of dollars are wasted in ghost jobs and in a growing governmental organization stunned by inefficiency. The “botellas” are a robbery and a betrayal of the people who do work.-

LA PRENSA, Feb. 23