Draft bill 87.

Summary.

The draft bill designates certain offenses against economic property, the economic order, public administration, and public faith as offenses of public interest when they affect state property or interests. It directs justice officials to consider the public interest alongside necessity, proportionality, reasonableness, and the complexity of the facts. The Public Prosecutor’s Office (Ministerio Público) could classify investigated conduct under these rules and request complex case proceedings. The judge would issue a reasoned decision; a refusal could be appealed with suspensive effect.

A prosecutor could keep proceedings wholly or partly confidential for thirty consecutive working days, renewable for equal periods, subject to judicial review at the defense’s request. Confidentiality would extend to the digital platform and recipients of information requests; a breach could lead to a fine. Results of confidential investigative steps would be disclosed to the parties thirty working days before the formal close of the investigation. Individuals and public or private entities would have to give priority to requests from the Public Prosecutor’s Office and its auxiliary bodies. In cases of noncompliance, the judge would allow forty-eight (48) hours for delivery and, if refusal continued, impose a fine and a further period of twenty-four (24) hours. Participants in the specified offenses could receive benefits through effective cooperation that helps clarify events, identify participants, or locate and surrender assets.

The bill governs undercover operations, surveillance and tracking, controlled deliveries, and controlled bribes, subject to review by a guarantee judge within thirty working days. It permits national or foreign agents to assume fictitious identities, limits their conduct, and protects their identities when they testify. It allows information obtained undercover to clarify new offenses, and permits filming and photography during the specified operations. The Attorney General would authorize international controlled deliveries and allocate resources for controlled bribes. The bill also provides for judicially authorized interception under the Criminal Procedure Code (Código Procesal Penal), reasoned prosecutorial seizure of certain data held by public entities, and application of that Code’s rules to seized electronic systems.

For witnesses, cooperating participants, and people reporting corruption, prosecutors could order personal protection, identity confidentiality, employment safeguards, and technological means of testimony. They could secure premises to prevent flight or loss of evidence. Provisional seizure would reach instruments, proceeds, and assets connected to an offense, including assets transformed or mixed with others; a person seeking to lift the measure would have to show their lawful origin. Subsequent judicial review would occur within no more than twenty working days. Specialized units of the Public Prosecutor’s Office would investigate these offenses. When the Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences (Instituto de Medicina Legal y Ciencias Forenses) or the Office of the Comptroller General of the Republic (Contraloría General de la República) could not provide an expert examination in time, other public servants and personnel from state entities, public universities, and companies with state participation could perform it. The bill assigns evidentiary value to those reports and to internal audits by affected entities.

International criminal cooperation would follow applicable agreements or reciprocity and could include testimony, documents, inspections, seizures, and asset tracing. Joint teams could be formed with foreign authorities and would be led in the Republic of Panama (República de Panamá) by a Panamanian prosecutor. A founding agreement would specify the investigation’s purpose, duration, membership, powers, and use of information. The bill governs expansion of a team’s work and the purposes for which information obtained by its members could be used.

A person who causes financial loss to the state, a municipality, a community board, or an autonomous or semi-autonomous entity would incur criminal and civil liability, with compensation and an additional monetary penalty. Certain offenses against state property would require enhanced compensation and an ancillary fine. Amendments to the Criminal Code (Código Penal) add disqualification from contracting with the state, govern ancillary penalties, and revise offenses involving contributions to the Social Security Fund (Caja de Seguro Social), payroll deductions, financial resources, embezzlement, bribery, unjustified enrichment, influence peddling, and public procurement. They also reach conduct by members of the Judicial Branch (Órgano Judicial) and the Public Prosecutor’s Office, and refer to the Political Constitution (Constitución Política) in one amended offense.

A criminal judgment imposing civil liability would have to quantify several categories of loss and permit collection measures. The State Property Restitution Fund would be administered by the Ministry of Economy and Finance (Ministerio de Economía y Finanzas) and finance social programs and community projects in affected areas. An amendment to the Criminal Procedure Code would exclude conditional suspension of proceedings in the specified cases involving state property and public servants. The bill also includes requirements for private complaints and criminal reports, whose admissibility would be decided by the Full Bench of the Supreme Court of Justice (Pleno de la Corte Suprema de Justicia). Its concluding provision lists the amended sections, including article 343 of the Criminal Code, and provides for commencement upon promulgation. The measures also concern the Supreme Court of Justice (Corte Suprema de Justicia), judicial officials, local governments, employers, financial institutions, public contractors, and affected communities.