Image copyright Reuters Image caption Jimmy Morales bought sports clothes and bottles of rum with public money

Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales has shrugged off criticism levelled against him for claiming $40,000 (£29,000) in expenses in 2017.

Mr Morales, who was a comedian before becoming president in 2016, claimed for luxury goods such as a pair of designer sunglasses and whisky.

Guatemala has one of the highest inequality rates in Latin America.

At $20,000 per month, Mr Morales receives one of the highest salaries of any president in the region.

He campaigned on a promise to root out corruption using the campaign slogan "Neither corrupt, nor a thief".

Breath mints and running socks

The president reacted angrily when he was questioned about his expenses during a news conference on Monday.

Asked why he had not paid for a pair of sunglasses by designer Carolina Herrera worth almost $3,000 himself, he said: "Because I don't have to pay for them out of my salary. (...) I was handed that pair of glasses, do you think I go asking for those kind of purchases?"

Goods worth a total of $40,000 were paid for by the presidential office of administrative affairs in 2017.

Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Guatemalans have been marching against corruption and demanding that Mr Morales step down

In a statement, the office said that part of its duties was to offer administrative and logistical support to the president and his family.

But details of the cost of the purchases made by the office have caused outrage in Guatemala, which has some of the worst poverty, malnutrition and maternal and child mortality rates in the region.

Among them are vitamins, bottles of rum, shampoo and sports items such as running socks, a golf cap, T-shirts and shorts.

Presidential spokesman Heinz Heimann defended the purchase of a tennis outfit for the president saying it was "for an official activity with the US ambassador".

"The president needed that gear to attend that invitation and it was last minute," Mr Heimann said.

The office also paid for a bottle of whisky worth more than $400 and paid out more than $4,000 for dry cleaning, according to an investigation by newspaper Nuevo Diario.

Anti-corruption group Justicia Ya (Justice Now) called the expenses "unjustifiable". "Jimmy Morales even bought mints with public money," the group said.

An investigation is under way to determine if the purchases were legal. </s> GUATEMALA CITY (AP) — Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales announced Sunday he is expelling the head of a U.N. anti-corruption commission that is investigating the president’s campaign financing.

A video posted on the government’s Twitter site showed Morales declaring Ivan Velasquez “non grata” and ordering him to leave the country immediately. He also announced he was firing Foreign Minister Carlos Raul Morales for failure to carry out the expulsion.

Velasquez heads a 10-year-old commission of experts that has worked with Guatemalan prosecutors to root out corruption in the country. It was key to bringing down former President Otto Perez Molina, who was forced to resign in 2015 and remains in prison.

Chief prosecutor Thelma Aldana, working with the U.N. commission, announced on Friday that she was asking the Supreme Court recommend stripping Morales of his immunity from prosecution in order to investigate financing of his 2015 campaign, when he ran on the slogan “Neither corrupt nor a crook.” If the court agrees, the decision on immunity would be made by Congress.

The prosecutor said Morales had refused to account for more than $800,000 in campaign financing and had hidden his own party’s accounts.

Some 2,500 people demonstrated in the capital on Saturday to demand Morales resign.
President Jimmy Morales is questioned about the high costs he spends to buy food and other luxury items.