BRIEFS. Crime

School money stolen

The national director of the Fondo de Equidad y Calidad de la Educación (FECE), Rony Guerra, said yesterday that the Contraloría General has decided to reestablish the control it once exerted over FECE monies.

The decision comes after the misappropriation of more than $1 million in funds in the district of San Miguelito.

As just one consequence of the crime, some students at the Escuela de la República de Polonia will be deprived of the Christmas parties and gifts that would have been provided for them with the missing money.

Inés Aponte, a teacher at the school, explained that they had to freeze their plans for celebrations when the money from Bienestar Estudiantil, a Panamanian organization dedicated to the welfare of poor students, somehow "disappeared."

"This actually meant asking the children for money [for some activities], although most of them have no resources because their parents are extremely poor," Guerra said.