Panama City, Sept 4 (Prensa Latina) As part of the public spending cut plan demanded by social organizations in Panama, between 35,000 and 40,000 officials can benefit from the voluntary retirement program, the government said today.
The coordinator of the plans and programs of the Presidency of the Republic, Manuel Gonzalez, explained to the press that although the project is not limited to public employees of retirement age, the executive branch is betting on this population as the most likely to benefit.
Gonzalez indicated that the ministries will be responsible for publishing the program internally and until next November 15 they must collect applications, which will allow more detailed figures about its scope.
According to the reports of the Comptroller General of the Nation, the state apparatus includes 256,579 officials, which assumes monthly payments of only $409.7 million in salaries.
According to the supervisory body, out of the total number of employees, about 226,344 permanent employees and another 30,235 have temporary or temporary contracts.
For the popular movement, the measure could be surrounded by irregularities and affect essential workers, while so-called temporary advisers in positions called bottles, whether in the executive branch or in Parliament, will continue to receive exorbitant salaries and travel expenses.
The implementation of this program, which they consider a failure, has also been criticized by the Federation of Public Employees (Fenasep), its general secretary, Alejandro Haines, told Telemetro.
In his opinion, the fact that the country’s workforce is large is evidence that other programs of this type have not worked.
According to the current rule, public servants who benefit from voluntary retirement in any way may not be re-employed in the state apparatus.
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