The wave of allegations and admissions of bribery and other wrongdoing by public officials from across the political spectrum continues to dominate the news in Panama. However, some of the more flagrant abuses are being openly ignored by authorities and other investigations are the subject of partisan spin control by prosecutors.

Officially under investigation by the Public Ministry are allegations that legislators Carlos Afú, Carlos Alvarado and Tomás Gabriel Altamirano Duque were bribed to approve President Moscoso's nominations of Winston Spadafora and Alberto Cigarruista to the Supreme Court of Justice; and the charge first made by Carlos Afú that legislators were paid money for their support of the Multi-modal Industrial and Service Center (CEMIS) project in Colon. Not under investigation are allegations and admissions that legislators Miguel Bush, Francisco Ameglio and others held unconstitutional government contracts or concessions, at least one of which President Moscoso admits that she personally approved, and others of which Comptroller General Alvin Weeden promised to disclose but subsequently has not.

Attorney General José Antonio Sossa, a former member of the Christian Democratic Party's national executive committee and an appointee of former President Ernesto Pérez Balladares, says that he has taken charge of the investigations. Sossa is infamous for his partisan cover-ups, such as his repeated attempts to block the Truth Commission's probe into the murders of dozens of activists during the era of the dictatorship, which could prove embarrassing to the PRD, which at the moment is allied with the former Christian Democrats, who now call themselves the Partido Popular. However, in the current scandals no Partido Popular members have been accused of wrongdoing, and rank-and-file members of that party have participated in the protest rallies and marches. If Sossa might reasonably be accused of following a party line when investigating or not investigating corruption, at the moment it is not entirely clear what the party's position is.

Sossa's most notable recent public statement was a blast against several of the daily newspapers, which reported that special anti-corruption prosecutor Cecilia López had, in connection with the accusations that Afú, Altamirano Duque and Alvarado were paid to ratify the president's high court nominees, audited the books of Ahoros y Prestamos para la Vivienda, SA, a company whose directors include Vice-Minister of the Presidency Arnulfo Escalona. According to many reports in various media, López found records of cash withdrawals of more than $500,000 made in late December, which may or may not have been cash to buy votes for the president's nominees. (The company says that the cash was for Christmas bonuses for its employees.) El Panama America and El Siglo reported that sources in the Public Ministry confirmed the audit, but Sossa took out full-page ads demanding a retraction. The attorney general didn't precisely deny that the company was audited, but said that it hadn't been confirmed by the ministry. The papers stuck by their reports.

According to law professor and activist Miguel Antonio Bernal, a former aide to President Moscoso, Sossa made his declaration "clearing" Escalona of involvement in the scandal after a direct personal telephone call from the president. Bernal called that "an unusual action" that "absolutely disqualifies" Sossa from heading any anti-corruption investigation.

Sossa's notoriety has also prompted a number of implicit declarations and warnings from influential groups and individuals. The nation's Roman Catholic bishops warned that cover-ups would be unacceptable. The local chapter of the business-oriented anti-corruption group Transparency International issued a statement that in part called upon the Panamanian people "to assume a vigilant attitude about the investigations and proceedings that the Public Ministry and the judiciary are carrying out with respect to the alleged corruption of public officials."

Meanwhile, López has also been looking at documents and bank records of the Consorcio San Lorenzo, the promoters of the CEMIS project. In this investigation there have been leaks about unusual large cash movements; prosecutorial inspections at the legislature's Palacio Justo Arosemena; and highly publicized appearances before prosecutors of various legislators and by Peter Rodin, the brother of Consorcio San Lorenzo junior partner Martin Rodin. From the information that has been made public so far, it appears that the CEMIS approval bribery case is a "swearing contest" --- one might believe Afú, Altamirano Duque and others who claim that envelopes full of money were distributed to legislators, or one might believe Mateo Castillero and others who claim that this never happened.

Meanwhile, the matter of contracts and concessions that violate the Panamanian Constitution, which was raised the week before the Supreme Court nomination votes by Comptroller General Alvin Weeden, who moved to cancel PRD legislator Miguel Bush's concession to run a quarry in Colon, appears to be a dead letter. The constitution clearly provides that legislators may not have contracts with or concessions from the government. President Moscoso owns up to approving Bush's concession, which she called a "mistake." Bush claimed that if his concession was illegal, so was a contract by which a company owned by Arnulfista deputy Francisco Ameglio to collect the garbage in the Colon Free Zone. The latter has not specifically denied Bush's claim. During the initial controversy over Bush's concession, Weeden declared that there were similar illegal contracts and that he would move to strike them down. However, in the month since then there has apparently been no action by Weeden to carry out this threat, and illegal concessions are not among the matters that Sossa's ministry has said it is investigating.

According to many sources, any thorough investigation of government contracts and concessions held by politicians, their families or companies that politicians or their relatives own would embarrass several public officials from both the PRD and Arnulfista parties, and from some of the smaller parties as well. The issue of government contracts figures into the PRD's allegations against Altamirano Duque, whose family business has held the profitable contract to print the national lottery tickets since the early 1990s. According to the charges being circulated by PRD members, Afú's vote for Spadafora and Cigarruista was bought for $1.5 million, Alvarado was intimidated into voting for the nominations by the threat of a Comptroller General's investigation into the misuse of his circuit fund, and Altamirano Duque voted the way he did in order to retain the lottery ticket concession. However, were the party to take a stand against conflicts of interest in principle, many of Altamirano Duque's harshest critics would not be able to meet the standards they espouse.

The public reaction to all of the allegations has been subdued. The protests have been relatively small and fairly peaceful. However, influential social sectors --- many business and religious leaders, and a large segment of the press, for examples --- are now saying that they have had enough of political corruption and are discussing radical steps like a new constitution, the cancellation of the CEMIS contract, the removal of Spadafora and Ciguarrista from the high court, and the imprisonment of crooked public officials.

If public opinion polls are to be believed, the scandals have hurt President Moscoso and PRD leader Martín Torrijos the most and are giving small boosts to Panama City Mayor Juan Carlos Navarro and banker Alberto Vallarino, both of whom have been mentioned as possible presidential candidates in 2004. Neither Navarro, a PRD member, nor Vallarino, an Arnulfista who ran as the head of a "third force" ticket in 1999, have been implicated in the unfolding scandals.

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