Panama's problem with the bottle
No, not another Hegseth post
There are some objects (e.g. popcorn, drinking straw, snob) for which every Latin American nation seems to have its own word. Another candidate could be the phenomenon of public sector ghost-workers, real people put on the payroll by politicians as a clientelistic kick-back.
In Argentina they are called gnoccis: They show up at the end of the month to collect their paycheck, around the same time porteño families traditionally eat the potato-based food. In Colombia they are “airplanes,” soaring over the heads of the real workers. Last week the The Paraguay Post taught me that the term in Asunción is planillero.
In Panama they are called bottles (though nobody can tell me why) and president José Raúl Mulino is seemingly on a mission to knock them off their wall. In January he said it was “insufferable to live with a bunch of layabouts” who were clogging up government ministries “without having a role and claiming a salary.”
The National Assembly has long been viewed as the bottles’ most accommodating habitat. In mid-April comptroller general Anel “Bolo” Flores announced that payment of assembly functionaries via bank transfer would be ended. Those on the payroll would have to come in person to collect their cheques.
Come payday, the car park outside the assembly overflowed. “People showed up who had never, in their lives, been seen there before,” said Flores. A punch clock was introduced to track attendance and an email set-up for public sector employees to blow the whistle on suspected slackers. At the end of the month, Flores published the assembly’s payroll (compiled by La Prensa into a handy searchable database).
So who are the kings of clientelism?
In short, the PRD, by some distance. The average PRD deputy spends six figures per month on payroll, compared to just over $15,000 per month amongst the Vamos deputies.
The PRD’s president, Benicio Robinson, has 145 people on his payroll, costing the state $261,225 per month. The top three highest spenders are all from his party. The payroll was stuffed with countless chauffeurs, ageing ex-deputies, “sports and culture promoters” (basically campaigners rewarded for bringing in votes with a five year salary) and the alleged ex-girlfriend of a former president. Flores said that in one department officially employing sixty individuals, only six were working.
Yesterday, Flores said he was sending the names of 400 suspected bottles to the attorney general’s office.
Three takeaways:
Bottlegate lifted the lid on the extent of the clientelism practiced by the PRD (the ruling RM party are no saints either) but also highlighted a root cause of Panama’s current fiscal woes. René Quevedo, the local labor expert, points out that between 2013 and 2023, Panama lost 26,000 formal private sector workers and gained 77,000 public sector jobs and 235,000 informal workers. “Each salaried position lost was replaced in the economy by three functionaries and nine informal positions,” he sums up.
Mulino is grasping the nettle. While the opposition parties have united in protest of his tepid dealings with Donald Trump, the president and finance minister Felipe Chapman are making tough, unpopular decisions to stabilize the economy. The reform of the social security system and restarting talks with the copper mine were never going to win him any fans. Going after misuse of public funds will cause him additional headaches in an assembly in which he has little control.
Bolo Flores is a busy man. In addition to bottle-smashing, the comptroller general has overseen the audit of Panama Ports Company, opened an audit on Spanish energy firm Naturgy and investigated nepotism in the awarding of student grants. His proactive approach is a welcome change from that of his predecessor, Gerardo Solís, who was “participant and accomplice in the destruction of the treasury” according to one Vamos deputy. I’m told Flores is one of Mulino’s closest confidents and that he has presidential aspirations.
OTHER NEWS
😡 PROTESTS: Thousands of students joined the protest against Mulino’s government yesterday. Although well into their second week, they currently lack the numbers and intensity of 2023.
⚓ PORTS: The pressure mounts on the Margarita Island port project. La Prensa went into the weeds yesterday on the background for a project seemingly destined for new ownership.
🚆TRAIN: Details of the government’s signature mega-project, a train to David near the border with Costa Rica, were revealed. The train will have 14 stops and require a new bridge over the Canal. (The train is top-contender for a future TST post).
🇺🇸: US RELATIONS: Panama’s former vice minister of foreign affairs gave Americas Quarterly the best explanation yet of the government’s strategy vis-a-vis Trump.
Below, an excellent cartoon that sums up Mulino’s current position.
