The national director of Public Procurement (DNCP), Pablo Seitz, ordered an ex officio investigation of the award procedure of G. 73,364 million granted by the Social Security Institute (IPS) to firms of businessman Alberto “Pulpo” Palumbo and Claudio Escobar Brizuela.
The resolution was signed yesterday, the case of the IPS “mau” cleaners barely exploded, among whom appear several teachers from the Ministry of Education and Sciences (MEC), a former cook from the “Octopus” family, nurses, retirees who swim they have nothing to do with the supplier companies nor have they ever grabbed a broom in the social security, within the framework of the million-dollar cleaning tender.
In an interview with the radio Universo 970 – Nación Media, the director of Public Procurement, Pablo Seitz, explained that they decided to open an investigation to verify compliance with the provision of cleaning services that was declared by the Palumbo company.
He explained that all companies that are awarded by the State must present two forms of their employees, so this time they will also cross-reference those data with those that appear in the IPS pension system.
“We have the IPS as a social security provider and as a recipient of services. What we are going to ask the IPS is that they inform us of the control system applied, to verify that the people declared on the list are actually doing the cleaning service, as a first step in this investigation process”, he referred.
He exemplified that in his institution they have 20 cleaners and that they must present their identity cards daily to verify that they correspond to the data that was declared by the company awarded to offer this outsourced service. “If one day an employee of the cleaning company does not leave, the company has certain hours to replace him and report the change of his worker,” he added.
In the case of the IPS and the businessman Palumbo, the company providing the service is exposed to a summary for breach of contract and bad faith by including invalid data to obtain a benefit in their contracts, and if the irregularity is verified, they can receive a warning and disqualification to contract with the State in a period that goes from 3 months to 3 years, according to Seitz. On behalf of the IPS, you will be instructed to make internal administrative summaries to determine responsibilities.
“The first party responsible for exercising control is the contracting public institution. What normally happens is when an irregularity is detected, from Public Procurement we inform other control institutions, such as the SET and the Comptroller’s Office,” said Seitz.
THE MEGA-SCANDAL IN IPS
The payrolls of employees that appear in the bidding for the clean-up of the pension do not cease to amaze. In the documents provided by the National Directorate of Public Procurement, a perverse scheme is revealed in which companies present the same identities of employees for different contracts, according to the newspaper La Nación / Nación Media.
The treacherous monopoly scheme in the cleaning tender in the Social Welfare Institute (IPS), exercised by Claudio Escobar Brizuela with his company Cevima SA and the “octopus” of public contracts Alberto Palumbo with his sole proprietorship and Poti SA do not end surprise with the dark maneuvers for millionaire awards.
In addition to the teachers who appear as cleaning staff of the Palumbo companies, public officials, white staff revealed with our investigation, there is a kind of use of the same identities for different contracts.
That is to say, the suppliers presented to Public Contracting payrolls in which the same names appear, in the case of the “octopus” 18 same identities used in their two companies.
Thus, for example, the name of María Librada Aquino was presented within the payrolls of the two Palumbo firms before Public Contracting; however, on the portal of the IPS insured, she appears as an employee of the San Alfredo group, another well-known cleaning contractor.
Another case seen in the infographic in this article is that of Ana María Medina, who appears on the list provided by Cevima and Palumbo.
Reginaldo Benegas Ríos appears on the list of cleaners for both Potî and the sole proprietorship Palumbo, so both suppliers, forgive the redundancy, are owned by the same “octopus” businessman and used the same identity to bid for two different contracts.
Strong whiff of informality in the business with the pension, when the papers guarantee the coverage of labor rights, including social security.
We can also mention the case of María Vanessa Benítez, name forwarded to Contrataciones by Cevima y Potî SA, conspicuously in the portal of the insured, the woman appears with only one month of social security contribution.
The minimum that should appear on the web is that the employee has contributions for more than 9 months; however, in her case she appears on the payroll of two IPS cleaning providers and with just one month of contributions.
Mining irregularities appear in the personnel lists of the aforementioned contractors. Only Palumbo companies have about 200 employees with less than 9 social security contributions, 36 of those referred as part of the hiring staff appear as employees of other companies.
The defect is replicated in the firm Cevima SA, 8 people on its list appear with less than 9 months of contributions in the IPS, retirees with years of retirement, etc.
