“We eliminated a thousand cards that had been issued irregularly after following due process,” says national director of Disabilities, Edy Quizhpe

The greatest weight in the rating that determines the percentage of disability is given by the person’s medical situation, although psychological and social factors are also taken into account, explains Edy Quizhpe, national director of Disabilities at the Ministry of Public Health (MSP).

“Our catalog of disabilities is in accordance with international recommendations and we have physical, intellectual, hearing, visual and psychosocial disabilities. Obviously a person can have mixed disabilities, but the system will always take the value of the one that predominates over the rest ”, he indicates.

The official affirms that mechanisms were activated to guarantee that cards are not delivered fraudulently to people who do not meet the requirements to benefit from the affirmative measures registered in the Organic Law on Disabilities, which range from discounts on basic service rates, in taxes and duties.

What changes did you implement as a result of the 2020 complaints about people who paid to obtain disability cards fraudulently?

The qualification procedure remains the same, the process of how the qualification is carried out has not changed, that is, the medical reports of the specialists are obtained and once they are there, a turn is requested for the qualifying team in the different health centers do the procedure. What we are is much more rigorous and we have more monitoring and control of the qualification procedure. In the zonal coordinations we have technicians who monitor that the qualifications have the support and that the due administrative health process has been carried out. What has changed is that since February of this year we are no longer issuing a physical disability card, as was the case before, now the card includes the qualification variables. We indicate to users that they must update this document enabling the new qualifications. This procedure in the Civil Registry is free and people with disabilities have preference.

What does the qualification of a disability depend on?

The disability qualification procedure is the first step, in this procedure they will tell you that you need reports from specialist doctors, depending on the pathology that the person has, be it an orthopedic surgeon, neurologist, physiatrist, ophthalmologist, cardiologist. If the person reaches 30% and above, it is credited as a disability and can access the different benefits. The only thing that has changed is that in the new qualifications we no longer deliver the card because that was a somewhat weak mechanism to falsify, that is why we have changed it and since the card already incorporates these variables, what the person does is only update their identification card.

What will happen to those who have the cards since before last February?

Those people who still have their cards from Conadis (National Council for the Equality of Disabilities) and from the Ministry (of Health) are organizing a campaign with the Civil Registry until next year, so that people can progressively update their ID. We are now going to issue a massive communication campaign so that people gradually come closer, update their identity card and no longer use the card, because the law says that the only viable document for all public and private procedures is the identity card, and since the ID already has this data, the logical thing is that people only use the ID and eliminate this from the use of the card. This process will at least last until December 2023.

Do they have until that month to renew the ID?

We are going to carry out a campaign so that people go progressively, do not pile up, but rather go in an orderly manner to the different offices of the Civil Registry. We are going to coordinate the launch of this campaign.

They have to verify that people with disabilities actually have priority attention and see the problem of the lack of materials.

With the new qualifications we have no problem issuing the ID. We have been doing this since February, but there are close to 400,000 people who have to make this change and this must be done in an orderly fashion and making sure that the Civil Registry is not really going to have problems with species, with plastics, for that reason We are already organizing a campaign with Conadis, the Civil Registry, so that later the whole world finds out what the process is going to be like.

And the information of your qualifications is connected in real time with the Civil Registry?

The Civil Registry consumes in real time through a web services, it consumes our data in real time, but with all the difficulties, we always recommend the user to come the following week so that they can update the ID, just in case, there can always be some difficulty, but in theory it rated me and in the afternoon I could already get the ID. They don’t have to ask for any document, neither the old card, nor a certificate, nor anything. However, we give the user a document that is a certificate of the procedure, but it is not a requirement to be able to access the renewal of the identification cards.

Where on the card does this information appear?

On the front of the card, it is indicated first if the person has a disability with the word DISCAP and on the back they have created a space where it says the percentage and the type. That does not mean that they cannot check the web system, confirm, because all public institutions have equal access to a data mailbox of the national system of public records, so there is also a double data check there.

The cards can also be cloned.

Of course, we are constantly doing a review of ratings across the country. We returned to permanent care since September 2020 (after the processing was suspended due to the pandemic).

Is the economic condition of the person who will be the beneficiary of the affirmative measures taken into account in the qualification?

The qualification is a combination of various medical, psychological and social data, so when the social component is analyzed there an evaluation of the person’s living conditions is made, there you can verify those who have greater social protection, so to speak. , have housing, work or access to someone to care for them. There it gives you more or less points, depending on each person. For example, there are people who may have conditions or social positions that are more economically beneficial, therefore, they will have a lower score than someone who obviously does not have a home, job or depends on a caregiver. There is a social component that is analyzed, there is a technical instrument to evaluate that. Once you have the social, psychological and medical points, the system makes a combination and gives you a percentage of disability.

Is a requalification required to import vehicles for the exclusive use of people with disabilities with exemption from duties and taxes?

Initially, the procedure was only to verify, that is, Customs verifies in the online system that a person has a disability or not, nothing more, but as a result of these problems that occurred, a modification was made to the procedure. Then Customs, once people enter the import procedures for goods or vehicles, ask our National Directorate of Disabilities to verify that this qualification has been given adequately. We access the people’s files and give a confirmation in the import system, indicating if the qualification is correct, we approve and if we observe that there are non-conformities, we reject that qualification and recommend the user to do a requalification. It is the user’s will because we cannot force reclassifications by law, but if we have doubts that this qualification has been correct, we will transfer the rejection of the procedure and obviously we also analyze internally that this qualification has been correct.

There are cases of people who take months and even more than a year to obtain the card.

People must access a medical report from the specialist both in the public system, the Ministry of Health and all levels of insurance, IESS (Ecuadorian Social Security Institute), Issfa (Social Security Institute of the Armed Forces of Ecuador), Isspol (Institute of Social Security of the Police), or they can do it in the private complementary network, for example, hospitals that are accredited as providers of the health system, in these establishments they can obtain the certificates. Possibly some people have more or less difficulties obtaining the reports, but in general they have priority in hospital scheduling. Once they have those reports, the rating depends on the complexity of the case. If someone has a mixed disability, obviously it can take between two and three days because it is not determined in a single evaluation, but if someone has a very simple single disability, possibly in the same session the qualification could be completed. It also depends a bit on the complexity and the type of disability.

Are the administrative processes against the officials involved in the delivery of fraudulent cards still going on?

There are three mechanisms, one administrative against the officials who were involved in the complaints, one against the professional. There is another in which we provide a number of reports to the Prosecutor’s Office for the investigation procedures for the alleged crimes of illicit association. A third process that we do is with the user, to activate an administrative mechanism that demonstrates that this rating was given properly. This can lead to the ratification of the rating or nullity.

Is this done on all the people with identification cards or only with the reported cases?

We start with the reported cases, with the qualifications of the assessors involved in these problems. We started with them, but we are doing with all the qualifications of the country. We have a very hard job there. We have activated monitoring and control equipment in all the zonal coordinations and we are already eliminating some cards, giving the user the right to defend himself so that he can also download whether or not he has proof that he has a disability. That is administrative due process.

How many cards have they eliminated?

We have about a thousand cards already eliminated from this group, but we are still running permanently. As a result of all this problem we have had to activate several mechanisms to improve the process, security to protect and that it is given properly. The Law (Organic on Disabilities) may be perfectible, but the essence of the law supposes greater social protection for people with disabilities, because it is understood that they are in a situation of greater vulnerability and have more needs compared to those who do not have disabilities. . The problem is that the system is violated and corrupted there, therefore as control institutions and providers we have to be much more careful in the qualification procedure. (YO)