One of the main administrative bodies of the FCTC treaty will be under new management for COP11.
Regular Copwatch readers will remember that in April last year, Dr. Reina Roa, who had accepted an award from Bloomberg Philanthropies, was being investigated by Panamanian authorities for “administrative irregularities” over what was a clear conflict of interest in her role as an “independent” adviser to the Ministry of Health.” The investigation did not get very far as she promptly resigned.
Later, in June 2023, It was alleged that there had been many discrepancies in her book-keeping for transport services in her capacity as National Coordinator of Tobacco Control of the Ministry of Health. Billed hours did not match those recorded on transfer request forms, invoices were found without proof of patient admission in medical records, and incomplete request forms had been discovered, with no information correlating with the transport required. At the time, she faced an order to freeze her assets, pending repayment of $87,930.
Dr Roa would also, presumably, have been intricately involved in her Ministry of Health’s dealings to host the COP10 conference in Panama, which caused a national scandal in August 2023 when a tender for $4,881,732.20 was published on the Panama Compra government portal. As Copwatch reported at the time, Medical Director, Fernando Castaneda complained to Panamanian media that “My God, with half of that money, we can buy incubators for new-borns, thousands of medicines, supplies, and equipment to replace all the damaged ones we have.”
Dr Roa would also have had a significant role in driving through Panama’s comprehensive ban on the sale of all vaping products. Sadly for her, in May this year, the ban was ruled unconstitutional by The Supreme Court of Justice in Panama. Roa’s reaction was not to respect the court’s decision and accept its judgement that the ban violated Panama’s parliamentary procedures. Instead, she, of course, blamed the tobacco industry.
As we know, despite the huge price tag, the arrangements for COP10 by Panamanian public health officials, including Dr Roa, were so shoddy that the event was postponed from November 2023 to February 2024, resulting in around 700 delegates and dozens of country delegations being unable to attend.
The upshot was a COP conference that was so chaotic and unsuccessful that the head of the Secretariat, Adriana Blanco Marquizo, could only express relief in the closing plenary that her organisation had “survived”.
With all this dubious conduct, potential scandals, and inept management from Roa’s Panamanian health authorities, one would have thought the WHO would not be enamoured with her at the moment. Not a bit of it. Instead, she has been elected President of the FCTC Bureau, the committee which will be tasked with writing the COP11 agenda.
For an organisation which famously appointed Robert Mugabe as a goodwill ambassador, a track record of financial irregularities, conflicts of interest, and incompetence are but minor faults.