Page 43 - Anatomy-of-a-Fraud

“Complaint over the purchase of 100,000

sticks for UNADE flags”

Ramón Lima Camargo, Esq., filed a complaint with the Electoral Court
on April 2 of this year over the purchase of 100,000 wooden sticks by
the Ministry of Justice and the Interior from the Chagres sawmill.
Mr. Camargo claims that the 100,000 sticks were purchased in order to
manufacture flags for the parties belonging to the UNADE and since

they were paid for with government funds, their purchase is an
electoral crime.
The invoice from the Chagres sawmill, Camargo states, bears number
134963. The number of the check used by the Ministry of Justice and

the Interior to pay for the sticks is 89799.
According to sources, the vehicles used to pick up the sticks at the
sawmill were vans bearing official license plate numbers 2574 and
2587. The sticks were collected by IRHE and DIGEDECOM

employees.
Mr. Camargo states that he has asked the Electoral District Attorney to
request the Ministry of Justice and the Interior to produce a copy of its
check number 89799 and to explain what expense was incurred thereby

and the use given the materials paid for with those funds.
He is also asking the Ministry of Finances and the Treasury to report on
the government dependencies assigned the vehicles bearing official

plates numbers 2574 and 2587.
In addition, he has asked the Office of the Comptroller General of the
Republic for a report on the payment made by the Ministry of Justice
and the Chagres sawmill be required to produce a copy of its invoice

number 1334963.

The wooden sticks had already been bought and paid for. It remained to
manufacture the flags.

On May 3, Guillermo Cochez, vice-president of the Christian Democratic
Party, happened to be at the Ministry of Finances and the Treasury on business. While
at the Ministry, an official informed him that PRD flags were being manufactured on
the premises. Cochez, unwilling to believe the report, went to the office pointed out by
his source. He was shocked to see several civil servants happily manufacturing banners
and thereby robbing the taxpayer’s blind. Not wasting a second, Cochez was back a
few minutes later, accompanied by the Electoral District Attorney himself (whose
offices are located a few blocks from the Ministry), and the criminals were apprehended
red handed.