Comptroller’s Office of Cuba, on the Gil corruption case: “One feels it like a betrayal”

For Gladys Bejerano, general comptroller of Cubathe most notorious corruption case in the country in decades, that of former deputy prime minister and former Minister of Economy Alejandro Gil, felt like a “betrayal.”

The top auditor of ministries and state companies in the socialist country highlights in an interview with EFE the “connotations” of the scandal, becoming the first senior Cuban official to speak about Gil since the investigation was announced two months ago.

“It hurts and it hurts a lot because one thinks as a colleague – and the people, as a Cuban – that a person who has been at that level, who has been handling the situations, the sacrifices that have had to be made,… that does not have an attitude Correspondingly, one really feels it as a betrayal, as something that is not right, and that is how we all feel. But there is morality and there is courage to face it,” he assures.

Bejerano, 77 years old, has been leading the Comptroller General’s Office for fifteen years and auditing for twenty years. He advocates drawing “lessons” from this “sadly negative lesson.”

Gil was dismissed as Minister of Economy on February 2 without public explanations and on March 7 the president, Miguel Díaz-Canel, announced that he was accused of “serious errors.” He spoke, without details, of “corruption,” “simulation,” and “insensitivity.”

“Every time there has been an event, it has been made public. “I can assure you that,” says this member of the central committee of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC, the only legal one), convinced that “sooner rather than later and to the extent of being objective” “all the information” will be provided.

He emphasizes that the Cuban system does not minimize corruption “neither because of the amount nor because it is from below or above,” although he understands that this case has “more meaning.” He clarifies that the investigation into Gil did not start from the Comptroller General’s Office.

Crisis in Cuba

Bejerano recognizes that the crisis has increased corruption somewhat because “there is a greater need” and a shortage “of everything,” although “it does not justify it.” Some people, he points out, “give in to the black market” and others take advantage, “even cruelly.”

It indicates that 76% of the illegalities detected occur “at the grassroots level” and that their “battle” is to reduce them to “zero”, as a matter of “principles” and “convictions” of the revolution.

“People don’t parachute into corruption. It is a process: corruption is decomposition. It is a process of loss of values, self-esteem, self-respect (…). There are others who are out of self-sufficiency, vanity, arrogance,” she describes.

Bejerano admits that 23% of the country’s control systems have deficiencies, mainly due to a lack of technical or human capabilities (only 60% of the Comptroller General’s positions are filled): “The controls are not at the level” that the Comptroller’s Office wants and that the country, the Government and the PCC need, he says.

He also explains that the GAESA business conglomerate, of the Armed Forces, is not under his supervision. This state group – which includes telecommunications, almost the entire tourism sector, remittances, importing and distributing firms, banks, gas stations, real estate and other businesses – represents the main contribution to the gross domestic product (GDP).

He argues that GAESA has “superior discipline and organization” due to its decades of business experience and that the Comptroller Office concentrates “forces” where “advances” are needed.

Regarding the link between corruption and growing inequalities in the country, Bejerano links it to the emergence of the private sector and points out that some people have more because they work and “have results,” but he believes that there are also “illegalities.”

“We are not going to admit to either the state or the private sector that they commit these types of crimes and that they offend and mistreat the people. That cannot be allowed: it is not what we want, it is not the model. We want honest, fighting and hard-working people to be able to have their business in order, fulfilling their obligations to the treasury and to society,” he answers.

Regarding the execution of the budget, also the responsibility of the Comptroller’s Office, he states that so far this year “revenues were met” and “expenses were reduced.” “There is a behavior, we could say, favorable,” he indicates, although he often points out that “it is not that the problem is already solved” because the public deficit is “quite high.”