Panama's government has failed to adhere to the same levels of transparency suggested by the anti-corruption committee set up after the Panama Papers scandal, Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz and Swiss anti-corruption expert Mark Pieth announced in a joint letter issued Wednesday, a few days after resigning from the commission.
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“Perhaps they worried that we would note large gaps between talk and action, between the legislation and enforcement,” Stiglitz and Pieth noted in the letter published in Time. “Were they worried that we might verify that Panama’s tax-free zones were being used for money laundering, and that we might recommend higher standards for those allowed to receive preferential tax treatment, which should be viewed as a privilege, not a right?”
The leak in April of more than 11.5 million documents from the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca, dubbed the Panama Papers, detailed financial information from offshore accounts and potential tax evasion by the rich and powerful.
Stiglitz and Pieth joined a seven-member commission tasked with probing Panama's notoriously opaque financial system, but they say they found the government unwilling to support an open investigation.
Both quit the group Friday after they said Panama refused to guarantee the committee's report would be made public.
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In its first full meeting of the investigative committee in New York on June 4-5, there was consensus that the government of Panama needed to commit to making the final report public, Stiglitz and Pieth said.
Instead, they said they received a letter from the government last week backing down from its commitment to making the committee's findings public.
"We can only infer that the government is facing pressure from those who are making profits from the current non-transparent financial system in Panama," Stiglitz said Friday.