The public hospitals in Ecuador got out of hand with the Ministry of Public Health (MSP) and the Ecuadorian Institute of Social Security (IESS), the two institutions that, on paper, direct, monitor and control the use of resources in their attached entities.
Although corruption ceased to be a novelty many years ago in Ecuador, during the last three months – in the midst of a pandemic – it reached a special nuance, as the map of complaints and suspicions grew as fast as that of infections and deaths of thousands of Ecuadorians –Poor, for the most part– who did not have timely attention to be COVID-19.
A few weeks after the health emergency began, decreed on March 11 to confront the pandemic, the press and social networks revealed millions of purchases with surcharges, irregular processes, contractors who did not meet the legal and technical requirements … Masks or covers for corpses, essential implements to equip medical personnel, were acquired at exorbitant prices or from suppliers that had nothing to do with health issues.
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