18/01/2022 Share The allowances that taxpayers pay to the 26 corregimiento representatives of the Municipality of Panama imply an annual charge of $811,200, or $4,56,000 per five-year period says a La Prensa report.
This is because every time the mayors of the capital district attend a session of the Council of Panama they charge $600 and this body meets once a week (52 times a year).
The figure is based on Agreement 24 of January 30, 2007, which doubled from $300 to $600 the number of allowances in municipalities whose annual income is greater than $60 million.
But, the 26 representatives of the capital commune receive another additional per diem: $250 for attending the meetings of the Provincial Council, a body that, according to article 256 of the Constitution, must meet once a month. This privilege implies a charge to the Municipality of $78,000 per year, or $390, over five years.
The salary of the 26 corregimiento representatives of the capital district is $2,000, but each one receives another $5,000 in travel expenses. There are also other prerogatives for the presidents of the Municipal Council and the Provincial Council: they are paid representation expenses of $2,500 and $1,000, respectively.
The accumulation of privileges that local authorities have in Panama is felt more strongly in the capital district, a commune where each of the 26 corregimiento representatives earns at least $9,650 a month.
This is the product of salary payments ($2,000), transportation expenses ($5,000), municipal council allowances ($2,400 for four sessions per month), and $250 in provincial council allowances.
Additionally, three of them receive representation expenses: the president of the Council, who receives $2,500; the vice president of that corporation, who is assigned $1,500; and the president of the Provincial Council, who receives another $1,000. Currently the president of the Municipal Council of Panama is the PRD member Abdiel Sandoya, representative of the district of Betania.
These privileges imply a charge to the treasury of $3,70,800 per year.
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