The president of the board of directors of the Ecuadorian Institute of Social Security (IESS), Francisco Cepeda, reported that between September 2021, the month in which it began operations, and January 2022, the entity has presented 12 complaints for corruption and another 48 for anomalies in public purchases.
He explained that previously many of the cases did not transcend after filing the complaint, that were archived and without follow-up. Now, he assures that they have been resumed and that results are expected in the coming months.
The major problems are concentrated in hospitals, due to irregularities in the acquisitions, he pointed out. “We have certain medicines that have three prices, even though they are from the same house (pharmaceutical) and the same medicine,” he said, as an example of what happens in health houses.
In his opinion, the genesis of this situation lies in the decentralization of public purchases and the “discretionary management” of managers of IESS hospitals on budgets.
To this is added, he added, that in the central administration there has been no analysis of the information or adequate control to detect inconsistencies in expenses of hospitals in purchases of supplies, equipment and medicines.
A recent event occurred on February 15 of this year, when in a raid by the Police and Prosecutor’s Office, at the Los Ceibos hospital, seven people arrested for an acquisition of medical supplies in 2019 with an alleged surcharge of $233,000, according to a Comptroller’s report.
Germán Rodas, coordinator of the National Anticorruption Commission (CNA), agreed with Cepeda that the problem of corruption drags on for several years. That the arrests of some involved have not stopped the resource bleeding and illegal transactions.
The reason for that, Rodas noted, is because the IESS continues to purchase products, especially supplies, “from the same people who have been involved in the last ten years in the sale with premium prices”.
This happens because when the companies involved are sanctioned, they disappear, “but the offender is left with the ability to continue operating” through other companies, affirmed the coordinator and indicated that “when the alerts are turned on” in the IESS, the managers of the irregular sales are transferred to the hospitals of the public health system (which are managed independently of the IESS network ).
The payment agreements have also been used for shady purposes. These tools, which serve to streamline resources and cancel directly, should be used exceptionally, in a time of crisis, Rodas mentioned. Before the pandemic, the CNA found, for example, more than 200 payment agreements between the Los Ceibos and Teodoro Maldonado hospitals. There are also anomalies in reverse auctions, the spokesperson added.
The Anti-Corruption Commission proposes as solutions to deal with the situation purge Social Security personnel, change the legislation on public purchases, establish a whistleblower protection program and penalize business owners who have committed a crime.
Another front of corruption that embezzles the money of members and retirees are the bribes that some external medical providers deliver in exchange for collecting the bills for the services they have provided to the IESS.
Francisco Cepeda indicated that several providers have acknowledged their participation in these acts of extortionbut did not reveal who it is.
“Some providers They say it was the only way to be able to collect (their bills). That they were about to go bankrupt and that they preferred to pay these percentages to have liquidity”, said the president of the IESS.
Behind this operates a network based within the Institutesaid Cepeda, who has set himself the goal of eradicating these practices. However, there have been obstacles to achieving that goal.
On February 3, the entity announced the arrest of three people in Quito (a current server, a former official and a private citizen) who they would have been found in flagrante delicto, when collecting a bribe from an external provider. The suspects were transferred to the Flagrancia Unit, but were released after the corresponding hearing.
Cepeda questioned the prosecutor and the judge who heard the case, since there are audio evidence and messages that would demonstrate the crime. Given what happened, Social Security presented complaints to the State Attorney General’s Office and the Judiciary Council to analyze the actions of officials.
The IESS has contracts with more than 300 external providers nationwide. Per year, on average, the entity pays $800 million for these services and records a debt close to $400 million, for cases dating back to 2010.
“Every time the derivations go up more, which is not logical. We should make our hospitals work better so that referrals stagnate or go down”, said the head of the entity and announced that in the coming days a report will be released. new payment mechanism for providers, to avoid further irregularities, which include suspicions of embezzlement, bribery, influence peddling, extortion and overpricing. (I)
Source: Eluniverso
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