The National Authority for Transparency and Access to Information (ANTAI), as the governing body in matters of ethics and transparency in public administration, informs the country that it has recently sanctioned twenty-nine (29) public servants of the University of Chiriquí (UNACHI). The investigation was initiated ex officio at the end of 2024, following the dissemination of various public reports related to alleged cases of nepotism at this higher education institution. In this process, ANTAI conducted a thorough review of the administrative and labor situation of eighty-six (86) public servants of UNACHI. It should be recalled that Article 41 of the Code of Ethics for Public Servants explicitly prohibits the appointment, hiring or retention of relatives within the third degree of consanguinity and second degree of affinity. It also establishes the prohibition that public servants work together with relatives within the same administrative unit or in units that maintain control, supervision, or oversight relationships. As a result of a rigorous investigation, developed with strict adherence to due process, this Authority recommended the dismissal of fifteen (15) public servants of different hierarchical levels of the Autonomous University of Chiriquí. Additionally, an economic equivalent sanction of fifty percent (50%) of the monthly salary was imposed on twelve (12) public servants, as well as a sanction of ten percent (10%) of the monthly salary on two (2) female public servants, all linked to nepotism practices. Likewise, it is informed to the citizenship that ANTAI currently maintains open about forty (40) additional investigations related to public servants of the Autonomous University of Chiriquí. ANTAI sends a clear and forceful message to the country: there will be no tolerance for behaviors that violate public ethics. This Authority will continue to act in defense of citizens, investigating in an objective and rigorous manner any report of irregularity in public administration. Every official who fails to comply with current regulations will be punished in accordance with the law, without exceptions, guaranteeing an integral, transparent, and exclusively national interest-oriented public management. This publication is made in strict compliance with what is established in article 29 of Law No. 33 of April 25, 2013.
