ICITAP [international criminal investigative training assistance program]/Panama police training project evaluation : final report

The project, implemented by the U.S. Department of Justice's International Criminal Investigative Training Assistance Program (ICITAP), is providing training and other assistance to the Panama National Police (PNP), the Judicial Technical Police (PTJ), and the Panama Department of Corrections (DNC) in the aftermath of the U.S. military invasion of 1989, which effectively destroyed the Panamanian police along with the Panamanian Defense Force (PDF) of which it was a part. The evaluation covers the period 1990-8/94. The police component of the PDF has been rehabilitated by sorting out known participants in corruption and rights' abuses, including virtually all senior officers and many junior officers. The remaining fraction of the officers combined with most of the enlisted ranks were incorporated into the uniformed PNP and the investigative PTJ. The PNP has received the most attention and has made impressive progress with its vitally important training academy, which faces the major challenge of replacing most of the officer corps which is retiring within the next few years. The PNP's quality of service and professional attitude have earned relatively high and steadily rising approval ratings from the public, although many Panamanians are still apprehensive of the PNP due to memories of its predecessor, the dreaded PDF. Also, accustomed to the old military's first call on revenues, the PNP has been slow to develop the budgeting and planning capacity it needs to compete for funds with other government agencies. Neither in fact nor in public perception has the PTJ progressed as far as the PNP, although a relatively good forensic laboratory has been established, professionalism is on the rise, ICITAP training has emphasized the use of evidence other than confessions (the staple of criminal investigation under past practice), and the "Integration Project" for prosecutors and investigative police which seeks to improve working relationships through on-the-job TA in the field has also been very successful. However, the forensic laboratory is still not being used properly, and the PTJ training program (which most personnel are in much need of) is very weak. The prison component started relatively late in dealing with a bad situation that included inhuman overcrowding of a prison population vastly exceeding the capacity of the facilities. The DNC is now completing a large new facility at La Joya. It is also, with the help of well-planned and -implemented TA, addressing prison management and policy concerns as well as training new professional prison guard forces to take the place of the present PNP details. Despite the need for field follow-up to its training and advisory services and its initial lack of adaptation to local working conditions and the Panamanian legal system, ICITAP has worked hard. Planning has been severely criticized for lack of systematic analysis of needs and priorities, loose definition of objectives, and lack of verifiable indicators of project accomplishment. Planning has focused on inputs rather than outputs, making it difficult to ascertain the extent to which project purposes have been accomplished. There is still no overall project plan as distinct from an annual plan. ICITAP planning has consisted of expending funds for the current year after they have been allocated rather than preparing a plan to provide a basis for allocating the funds necessary to complete the project. ICITAP has been improving with respect to planning, but is still notably weak. A critical problem has been lack of a genuine bilateral project agreement incorporating mutual definition of the project and specific commitments toward achieving project objectives. The major lesson learned is that, while simplified planning may be justifiable in emergencies, a long term institution building project should be subjected to rigorous project planning, design, and implementation discipline as soon as reasonably feasible. Failure to do so makes it impossible to define host country participation in project financing, which, by diminishing the host government's proprietorship of the project and prolonging its dependence on the donor, threatens project sustainability.