Such a deal! For those of us who live in Panama, stories such as these come as no surprise and most of the populace just accept it as the way things are.
From La Prensa
The lack of controls to access the database of the Department of Revenue (DGI) left a window open to alter the accounts that taxpayers have with the state.
The CEO of Revenue, Luis Cucalón, said on arrival at the institution in July found a database vulnerable to the discretion of some officials to "downgrade accounts and alter them, possibly in exchange for money." In the DGI had created a barter system, "Give me a thousand dollars and 100 thousand U.S. dollars delete you and no one notices. The way to know who that was incurred in reviewing the motions of the 620 staff of the DGI by a certain date, and no time to do that, we must be realistic, "he said Cucalón.
"As no trace of the transaction, it is difficult to test this situation," he said.
In this context, the DGI now justifies the direct recruitment of the Panamanian company Risco, SA, which will strengthen the security arrangements for a payment system of 54 thousand dollars. According Cucalón no time to wait six months a bid.
Under the previous administration bought two technology programs, a collection and control "FISCO massive", with a total value of half a million dollars, which were financed by the IDB. But according Cucalón, these do not work.
Indeed, currently working with the test program "FISCO massive".
Gisela Alvarez de Porras, former head of the DGI, said the system has internal accounting controls to detect data manipulation.
However, Cucalón said there is no real audit method for calculating what they could have been stopped charging $ 200 million in recent years, according to the experience of analysts.
According to Porras, is foolhardy "to refer to such a large sum and make it as true." "I assume that the DGI has no management information at this time".
