In the face of the difficult moments that block our country's progress, and after the presentation of a series of declarations about criminal deeds and mutal allegations of the commission of acts of corruption among public officials, the Pananamanian chapter of Transparency International (TI) wishes to make public the following observations and recommendations:

We call upon the citizenry to defend the rule of law and to protect democratic institutions, whatever the cost we must pay.

We invite 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.

We demand that the Public Ministry proceed according to the law, with preventive detention and subsequent dismissal from his or her job of every public official against whom it obtains proof of participation in the illegal acts being investigated.

We publicly recognize the gestures of those officials who have voluntarily set aside their immunity, as well as those who have taken similar initiatives for the purpose of giving crediblity to the investigations and to the public institutions that they represent.

If as a result of the investigations carried out there arise proofs that there were fatal improprieties in the approval of the contract between the San Lorenzo Consortium and the state, we demand that the proper authorities initiate procedures in the Supreme Court of Justice to annul the same, and as a special preventive measure, to suspend its effect while the case is pending.

We exhort the President of the Republic and the legislative and judicial institutions to, in concert with civil society, promote a national agreenent to formulate a National Integrity Plan that allows the scourge of corruption to be confronted in an effective and systematic way.

We recognize the executive and legislative branches for the will to have approved and signed the Transparency Law that permits free access to information and habeas data proceedings where it is denied, which this country needed.

This communique is an invitation to dialogue and concerted action, because fighting corruption is a job for everyone, as we all have our share of the responsibility.

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