Page Seven / La Paz
The businessman and former leader of the National Unit (UN) Samuel Doria Medina estimated that ghost items in public entities cause an economic damage of 600 million dollars in the country. For his part, the mayor of Santa Cruz, Jhonny Fernández, annulled the controversial instruction that prohibited municipal officials from issuing information on the 800 cases detected.
“My calculation is that ghost items imply a corruption of 600 million dollars a year. With this, the fiscal deficit could be reduced by two points and the danger of a financial crisis could be removed ”, wrote Doria Medina on his Twitter account.
“If, as I estimate, 10% of public positions are ‘ghost’, that is, the militant ‘works’ and his boss gets paid, we are talking about 54,000 positions and a loot of 600 million dollars a year,” he remarked. However, it was not clear where the data on which he based his calculation came from.
The statement came as a result of the scandal of the 800 ghost items detected in the Mayor’s Office of Santa Cruz, but which were later also reported in other municipalities and state entities such as the National Health Fund (CNS), where three have already been detained. people and there is talk of at least 23 temporary contracts of people who never worked, but from whom salaries were received and contributions were reported to the AFPs.
Also, yesterday the mayor of Santa Cruz, Jhonny Fernández, annulled the instructions that prohibited municipal officials from issuing statements regarding the case. “The spokespersons for the investigation of phantom items (will be) Dr. (Ever) Mérida and Dr. Adriana Pedraza, of transparency,” said Fernández.
