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Volume
14, Number 11 |
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Also in
this section: Salvador
Rodríguez inherits
education scandals by Eric Jackson, from other media "I have come to the Ministry of Education, where the budget is more than $600 million and with this money I can change the country and education," Salvador Rodríguez told El Panama America. No doubt. Just what those changes will be is less clear. Rodríguez is the former rector of the Technological University of Panama --- the Tecnologico, as it's better known, a highly respected school founded in the 70s when the engineering department led a secession of several faculties from the University of Panama --- and a trusted trouble shooter for the Torrijos administrator. When the PRD's plan to put the management of the Social Security Fund retirement program into the hands of private banks and investment funds and eliminate the possibilities of paid retirement for tens of thousands of Panamanian workers sparked a strike, the government temporarily backed down, brought in Rodríguez to head a "dialogue" which was manipulated by a coup here, a fraudulent election there, a sellout elsewhere, selected exculsions and the additions of some ringers, until it got to the point that the PRD was having a "dialogue" with itself, blessed by the Catholic Church, and more or less the same privatization scheme with a few cosmetic changes proceeded. The next phase of Seguro Social's privatization may be coming next, or may be blocked by another strike. Another "dialogue" on the health care system that was rigged from the start to come up with a result intended from the start --- the financing of the Ministry of Health's operations from the Social Security Fund, which will of course quickly bankrupt the health care part of Seguro Social and require urgent reforms (guess which one?) --- has submitted its proposal and the COENENAL, the coalition of public health care physicians' organizations, promises another strike if the legislature takes up the subject. But Rodríguez won't be the "neutral arbiter" in that process. His services are needed elsewhere. He's the Torrijos administration's fourth Education Minister in four years. Belgis Castro, the minister before him, was brought in to replace a minister who had defeated the teachers' unions in contract negotiations by way of the creation of a PRD front "negotiating committee" though which the genuine teachers' unions were by passed, but in the meantime had become ensnared in a simmering embezzlement scandal at the Quality Schools and Educational Equity Fund (FECE). The FECE scandal was widespread, but mostly centered in San Miguelito, where long-time members of Balbina Herrera's entourage --- she had been mayor of, then legislator from, San Miguelito --- ensconced themselves in FECE and began to steal. The audits and investigations are still underway, but it seems to be about a $1.4 million hit. At least 11 criminal prosecutions are winding their way through the criminal justice system and a few of the principals have been jailed pending trial. Castro got rid of the most obvious offenders, although the Balbina crony who was the aunt of the woman who's taking most of the blame in the FECE affair stayed on as vice minister through his tenure. Meanwhile, on Castro's shift it was decided that, in a sudden massive program, to remove the fiberglass insulation under the roofs of many public schools, which is an irritant when it escapes and floats free in the environment and is a mess when the roof leaks or becomes a nesting place for birds or animals. The government was going to do all this in the less than three months between the 2007 and 2008 school years. On paper, it was a huge success. As investigative reporters for El Panama America have shown, it was even magical --- PRD-selected contractors were paid, and their work was duly inspected and certified, for the removal of fiberglass from many schools that never had such insulation in the first place. When the school year began, dozens of schools were declared fit for use but turned out to have bits of fiberglass floating around in them from unfinished or incompetent insulation removal work. In some of these cases the contractors purported to work while classes were beginning. In others, the contractors had been paid and were long gone. In a few cases, it was frankly declared that schools were unfit for use until the work was done and the start of classes was delayed or instruction was transferred to other premises. On paper, the government was still able to report that the public schools were in better physical shape than in most recent school years. It took a few days and lines of students and teachers presenting themselves at public health care facilities with eye, skin and respiratory complaints to refute that. All across the country, schools were closed by students, teachers or parents, often all three working in concert. President Torrijos belatedly acknowledged the problem, putting Vice President and Foreign Minister Samuel Lewis Navarro temporarily in charge of fixing the mess with the school buildings. Belgis Castro wasn't fired. He quit to run for the legislature, also reputed to be a place where many lucrative funny contracts are available to be dispensed --- just the sort of institution for a man whose public life started out as a clinical psychologist for Manuel Antonio Noriega's torture and espionage G-2 unit. Along with Castro have gone much of the second, third and fourth tiers of education administrators, including the vice minister. The Comptroller General is conducting audits, which are uncovering minor irregularities like contractors whose corporate status wasn't duly registered but who nevertheless did what they were hired to do, and which probably aren't going to be able to avoid the massive fraud in the fiberglass insulation removal program. So whats' a militant teachers' union have to say about all of this? The Veraguas Educators Association (AEVE), says first of all that school designs have been according to an inappropriate set of templates all along. "As we have told other ministers, [we need] a schools infrastructure suitable to the environmental conditions in this country, because building a school is not the same as building a facility to raise chickens." The union, taking Rodríguez's role in the Seguro Social dispute as an indicator, is pessimistic about him being able to solve many problems over final year or so of the Torrijos term. In particular they cite plans to "do away with or change the nature of" the Normal School in Santiago and to implement the World Bank - funded Education Reform Program for Latin America and the Caribbean (PREALC) guidelines, which they see as little more than the smashing of teachers' unions and the impoverishment of most public instruction to a level most appropriate for carriers of water and hewers of wood. "The fiberglass problem," AEVE said in a press statement, "is precisely the essence of the political patronage model that rules the Ministry of Education, founded in the ignorance of the many incompetents hired for public jobs simply for being a member of the governing party." The union placed the problem in a lineup of grievances --- the high cost of living, communities being displaced by hydroelectric dams and strip mines, the militarization of the police, the free trade pact with the United States --- that suggests its intention to form broad alliances with other sectors of society that are annoyed by the current government. Meanwhile, one of the apparent principal fall guys in the latest round of scandals, the Education Ministry's director of engineering for Bocas del Toro, Eraldo Domingo, pleaded his case in El Panama America. About how the companies hired for insulation removal or replacement were chosen, he told the daily that "I know nothing of this --- they sent a list of companies that were hired from Panama City and the only thing we did was to assure ourselves that the companies did their jobs." So far, although a number of Ministry of Education administrators have been fired or have resigned under pressure, there have been no charges filed in the fiberglass scandal. Under Panama's system of justice, prosecutors generally can't touch cases affecting public finances until the Comptroller General gives them audit results that are sufficient to open a criminal case. Also in this section:Heavy fallout over Avenida Central chopper crash Colon vocational high school uprising 37 years after disappearance, Gallego still inspires New high court packing scheme in the works Chávez expresses annoyance with FARC Colon incinerator operators don't want photos Campaign battles over polls, on many other fronts Panama News Briefs Lots of things up in the air in early campaigning Education scandals won't go away New Penal Code, with late amendments, goes into effect Is the Merida Initiative going to bring a US base to Panama? Restless indigenous areas Burma's military situation altered by cyclone News |
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