national

Prosecutor hones in on park director

An anti-corruption prosecutor has called for Parque Omar administrator Mingthoy Giro to be dismissed from her post in the Tribunal Electoral.

LA PRENSA

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A page was turned yesterday in the criminal investigation being conducted by anti-corruption prosecutors into the suspicious disappearance of the “Juegos de Antaño” monument from Parque Omar in the San Francisco neighborhood of the capital.

Ramsés Barrera, director of the Anti-corruption Prosecutor’s Office, yesterday asked the Tribunal Electoral (TE) to dismiss beleaguered park administrator Mingthoy Giro from her position as TE delegate, a post she has held since January.

Barrera’s request was made just two days after Giro gave a sworn statement denying allegations that she had neglected to provide adequate security for the $1.5 million sculptures after they were transferred to a park storage facility from the Museo Antropológico Reina Torres de Araúz.

The prosecutor also announced that he has ordered sworn statements from 40 officials that work at the Despacho de la Primera Dama, which is responsible for park administration duties.

Some 25 other government employees, including those of the Servicio de Protección Institucional (SPI), who have custodianship of the park premises; and officials from the Instituto Nacional de Cultura (INAC) and the Dirección de Proyectos Especiales and the Ministerio de la Presidencia.

When asked if he will request a statement from First Lady Vivian Fernández de Torrijos, Barrera said that there is currently no evidence to suggest that President Martín Torrijos’ wife is connected to the case.

For now, he added, his office’s work will focus on determining what happened to the statues between Aug. 21, 2006, date on which the figures were moved from the then Museo del Tucán in Curundú [today, the Museo Antropológico Reina Torres de Araúz] to Parque Omar, and Sept. 2, 2008, the date on which the Ministerio de la Presidencia reported the sculptures missing.

Barrera said he also intends to look into uncovering the truth behind a discrepancy he noticed in an inventory of the monument made following the X Cumbre Iberoamericana de Jefes de Estado, for which the statues were commissioned. According to the document, the monument included 80 doves and 21 human figures, whereas the day they were moved to the park, only 21 doves and 20 human figures were registered.