politics

Spending raises some questions

Opposition members say that discretionary spending by the president should be limited.

la prensa

Vivian de Torrijos1109701

In four years in office, President Martín Torrijos has spent $17.5 million on discretionary items, including expenses that were incurred by the Office of the First Lady.

That amount of spending puts the president on track to spend slightly less than his predecessors.

If he keeps spending at the same rate, Torrijos will spend $21.8 million during his five years in office. That is slightly less than was spent by former presidents Ernesto Pérez Balladares (1994-1999), who used $25 million in discretionary funds, and Mireya Moscoso (1999-2004), who spent $23 million.

But the amount of spending has raised concern among some members of the opposition, who think the president has too much latitude in handing out money.

Vanguardia Moral de la Patria Deputy Mireya Lasso said that such spending, especially by the Office of the First Lady, is a waste of government resources which could be better spent in other areas.

The details of how the president's discretionary funds are spent are published on the government's web site. It shows that they were used to pay for medical services, gifts, funeral costs, food, lodging and education.

Some of the money was used to compensate the families of diethylene glycol victims, as well as the families of those killed in the La Cresta bus fire in 2007. Payments were also made to people whose businesses were impacted by the crash of SAN-100.

The Office of the First Lady has spent about $700,000 renovating the presidential residence, although First Lady Vivian de Torrijos pledged at the beginning of her husband's term to use private funds for the renovations.

The money used to remodel the building began appearing in quarterly reports of discretionary spending in 2004. According to the presidency, the total cost of remodeling the building was $3.4 million, of which 70 percent was raised privately.

The web site does lack certain details of discretionary spending. For example, a $10,000 payment was made in 2007 to Ilianne de Lacayo for “unforeseen expenses for official missions.” But the link to see itemized details of that spending leads to a blank page.