The alleged cases of corruption in public hospitals exceed 34 million dollars.
The National Anticorruption Commission (CNA) filed a complaint in the State Attorney General’s Office. This covers 54 public procurement processes and mechanisms to allegedly favor certain suppliers of medical supplies in public hospitals in Ecuador.
The demand It was delivered this Monday, June 24, 2024, in Quito. This bears the signature of the 12 members of the delegationmade up of delegates from groups and other citizen groups.
The details of corruption in public hospitals in Ecuador
Germán Rodas Chaves, coordinator of the CNAexplained that the study delivered to Prosecutor’s Office was based on a sample of 54 contracting processes for supplies, equipment, reagents and medical devices, chosen at random from the Public Procurement Portal.
The processes took place in hospitals of Guayaquil, Quito, Cuenca, Manta and Duránduring 2023 and so far in 2024.
In the complaint, the CNA says that many of the suppliers have been involved in research processes in the Prosecutor’s Officewhich has not prevented certain hospitals from maintaining them “as star suppliers.”
Other actors in the cases
The document adds that several suppliers have faced investigations, trials and even prison orders and have been linked to networks of organized crime.
The CNA defines that, despite these processes, they allegedly continue to contract with the State, through the Public Health Network.
The amount of the contracting processes analyzed is 34,372,936.44. Of these, ensures the CNA7,913,066.02 correspond to procedures in health homes under the responsibility of the Ecuadorian Institute of Social Security (IESS) and 26,459,870.42 in sites run by the Ministry of Health.
This June 25, 2024, EL COMERCIO requested a response from the Ministry of Health and the response is awaited to expand the information.
Characteristics of the investigated processes
The CNA defined several points of the alleged irregularities in public hospitals in Ecuador.
Generally, they are reverse auction processes, in which a single bidder or a maximum of two participates; That is, a very low participation of suppliers is observed.
In the event that more than two suppliers participate in the processes with their offers, the technical commissions have been responsible for reducing the number of bidders via disqualification, for any reason, so that only two qualify for the bid or that only one attends the negotiation phase.