PINAR DEL RIO, October 26 (Víctor Rolando Arroyo, UPECI / CubaNet) -
Six million pesos and one million dollars were found to have been embezzled from
a handful of government-operated businesses in Pinar del Río province
after 30 such businesses were audited this past September.
"The figures speak for themselves. If just 30 audits found that kind of
money missing, it's not hard to suppose that if all government enterprises were
audited the total amount found to have been embezzled could surpass any
estimate," said one informed source.
Cases of falsified documentation, theft, and embezzlement are common in
government-run companies in Pinar del Río, but often the economic police
does not apprehend those responsible and sometimes, doesn't even investigate.
The government-controlled press never explores the topic of corruption in
government businesses, but workers constantly criticize administrators, most of
whom are implicated in embezzlement, theft and other illegal activities.
"You can't accuse the administrators because, more likely than not,
it's the accuser that ends up being punished, or better yet, the corrupt
administrator is transferred and continues stealing elsewhere. As to the losses,
nobody knows how, but they get readjusted in the books and they show up as
'missing,' which is a catch-all term for all sorts of shenanigans," said
the source.
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original en español
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