IN THE MIDST  of the outcry over the National  Assembly toeing the government line over awarding state contracts  to foreign companies convicted of corruption, President Juan Carlos Varela  formally installed  a committee of experts to evaluate the practices of the financial system in Panama.

The seven member committee will have six to eight months  months to work independently to “”analyze and recommend best practices which will make our financial system stronger," said Vice President and Chancellor Isabel de Saint Malo de Alvarado.

The members are: Joseph Stiglitz, who won a Nobel Prize in economics; Mark Pieth, professor of Criminal law and Criminology at the University of Basel; Roberto Artavia, former director of the Incae business school; Gisela Álvarez de Porras, former Director General of Revenue and former Minister of Trade and Industries; Alberto Aleman Zubieta, former Panama Canal administrator; Domingo Latorraca, head of Deloitte; and Nicolás Ardito Barletta, former president and director of the National Center for the Development of Competitiveness.

"The committee will evaluate the existing practices of the Panamanian financial services center and will propose measures that it should share with other countries to strengthen the transparency of the financial and legal systems," said the president.

Varela said his government is committed to transparency so that success "does not depend on irregular flows of money to our financial system, but the hard work of Panamanians."

Re-affirming the government’s commitment to the transparency of the financial system he said:”The protection of our international services platform, has no reverse gear,"