THE WOMAN, that ex-president Ricardo Martinelli   tried to parachute in as leader of his CD Party, and whose rule was rejected, is the latest high profile member of his cabinet to face major corruption allegations

Alma Cortes  is  facing  investigation for  possible unjustified  enrichment of $2.5 million following an audit by the Comptroller.

Federico Humbert sent the result to the Public Ministry (MP) on June 7 for "for the steps it deems appropriate".

According to the audit, Cortes canceled a $144,000, apartment mortgage  and a beach house in San Carlos, for $ 255,000, during the period included in  the audit,July 1, 2009 to May 31, 2015.

The research also reveals that she obtained a property for $360,000 and another apartment valued at $154,000.

The audit also stresses Cortes altered property values and bank accounts in her affidavit of goods, in  July 2014, reports La Prensa.

When Cortés entered the post of Minister of Labor (Mitradel), in July 2009, she had $22 521.06, in her bank accounts and after leaving office on May 31, 2015 they reflected a balance of  $860,107.82.

The figures are contained in an audit the assets of the ex-minister by  the Office of the Comptroller General

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The review was initiated on 8 January 2015, based on an article published in La Estrella de Panama,   about  Alma Cortés. “buying and selling properties.”

The official document, discloses that in the period July 1, 2014 to May 30, 2015, Cortes the ex-Minister obtained funds from known sources (salaries, travel expenses, subsistence allowance payments, loans and others) for $1,0 22 418.21, while monetary resources used (payments, expenses, assets acquired and bank balances) totaled $3,610, 348.09, showing  a nonjustified  capital increase so far of $2, 587 929.88

Cortes gave her affidavit of assets on July 14, 2009, based on the dictates of Law 59 However, the audit of the Comptroller found that Cortez lied and altered the real value of her goods at various points in her affidavit.

The former minister listed goods at $632,000 while audit estimated at about $150,000. For example, Cortes said that as minister she received $4,000 a month in expenses when they were $3,500.

She said under oath that had a balance of $ 3,000 in one of bank account, but actually had an overdraft of $909.99.

The audit also discovered that she had another account with $18,000 instead of the $35,000 she declared.

As mentioned above, the audit estimated that Cortes received in the indicated period $1,022,418.81 from known sources.

Her   salary as minister (2009-2014) totaled $ 343,000 and per diem $165 191,527. In addition she received $150,000 from the sale of her home in Castilla de Oro, San Miguelito.

He also received a personal loan from HSBC for $269,000,  $11,661 Democratic Change party general secretary;  $2,000 for signing  fees in, Cortes, Molino and Associates; $2 336 per diem after attending the board of the National Institute of Vocational Training for Human Development (Inadeh); and $2000 salary as a professor at the University of Panama.

According to the auditors Cortés spent in the specified period $3,610,348.09.

The above figure is divided as: credit card payments $ 492 965; loan payments $322,169; expenses $995,710; purchase of goods $939,395 and balances in banks $860,107.

According to the information gathered during the audit, the former minister made payments on bank loans of  $322,169.

She also made payments pf $88, 182 to the loan acquired at the National Bank since 2006 for her residence in Castilla de Oro. Of this total she paid, $24,751 from her salary as minister and another $63,676 the canceled in March 2014, as the result of the sale of the property to her brother, Melvin Delgado, who worked in Mitradel with a $2,000 a month salary.

She also made other payments of $2,967 to cancel the loan on her car which she  acquired in May 2007 at a cost of $30,000. In January 2013 she paid $15,134 of a chattel loan with Banco General.