The Comptroller General of the Republic, the supervisory body of the Cuban regime, the Prosecutor's Office and the Ministry of the Interior have uncovered 13 cases of corruption in Sancti Spirits During the past year. This figure is in the annual average of scandals that break out in the territory (15), says Jesús Gerardo Martín Casanova, provincial chief comptroller.

However, the official press published a balance of seven cases in 2022: four of them in gastronomy, two in Education and one in Communal Services, with a total economic impact of 700,000 Cuban pesos, of which only about 55% of the money could be recovered. Most of the crimes were concentrated in the main municipality of Sancti Spíritus (6), in the Community Services, in the grocery store El Polaquito, in the Ideal La Casiguaya market, in the Casa Félix winery, in the 23 de Diciembre secondary school and in the Ernesto Guevara polytechnic. In 2021, another 10 cases were detected.

If these were the real data, we would not be facing a figure (13 cases) located in the historical average of the province but rather double the number of cases from one year to the next. Thus, in 2023 there was a "large-scale" embezzlement in the Provincial Camping Company, although anti-corruption operations have also been carried out in local bodies of Popular Power, in the Ministry of Tourism and in the commerce and gastronomy sector, which It is the one that accumulates the most interventions over the years. In none of these events would top-level leaders have been involved, says the Comptroller's Office, which, however, holds the managers responsible for "failing to do and supervise."

This occurs, adds the supervisory body, because "the audit system in Sancti Spíritus is broken." Martín Casanova admits that they are working with less than half of the auditors they need. To this we must add that a part of the available staff lacks training.

Corruption has taken root in Cuba and the Comptroller General of the Republic recognizes it. "This is not a problem of Sancti Spiritus society but of Cuban society in general because the tendency is for cases of corruption to occur in various sectors," said Martín Casanova, who attributes these "criminal acts" "to the lack of control of officials and the lack of supervision by higher bodies".

He also blames "the current inflation and economic shortcomings," which "make unscrupulous people try to profit from the people's resources and not only benefit themselves, but also others," added the comptroller, in an interview published in the local newspaper Escambray.

The facts are so evident that Martín Casanova affirms that if there is corruption, it is always detected. To tackle it, in the opinion of the comptroller, audits would have to be carried out on the companies every six months. "Every 180 days a state company should undergo an audit, but the deficit of auditors does not allow this rotation to be maintained. Some events have also been detected through the entities' own internal control system, but they are the least," he stressed. .

Once corruption is detected, companies must demonstrate how to eliminate the causes that caused the embezzlement "and the conditions that made this possible." In addition, administrative officers have to go to state control commissions, where criminal cases are monitored; They have to propose solutions and present a rectification of the prevention plan.

Embezzlement in Campismo

In April of this year, a 26-year-old young man, an accountant by profession and resident in Trinidad, was sentenced by the Provincial Court of Sancti Spíritus to 18 years in prison for the theft of a large sum of money from the Popular Camping Company of that territory. The embezzlement amounted to 7.9 million Cuban pesos and was detected by the continuous movements of money that were made between the entity's accounts.

Oscar Ramón Rodríguez Socarrás, director of Inspection and Internal Control of the Campismo Popular Business Group, indicated in the trial that the defendant edited the company's account statements in a PDF to Word converter, after making transactions to his accounts, and Thus, he eliminated transfers to his magnetic card.

Likewise, five Campismo workers were administratively fined, including the general director, the deputy director, the accounting and financial director, the head of Human Resources and a specialist in the latter area, for failure to comply with the duty of preserve assets in the entity; which cleared the way for the sanctioned person to embezzle the company.