Supervisor of government assistance program behind bars

An operations supervisor at the Authority for Government Innovation (AIG) is in provisional detention accused of allegedly manipulating the database of the Digital Voucher social program created during the COVID epidemic to assist families at the bottom end of the social scale.

The 49-year-old official, who was charged with six counts of fraud after a hearing on Friday, had access to the CédulaD platform, so she made changes to the access credentials in the user accounts of various beneficiaries of the Digital Voucher program.

According to the prosecutor’s office, the woman then provided the information to third parties “who illegally exchanged the profit in various businesses located in the district of San Miguelito.”

That is, they collected the $120 that the Government allocated, through the ID cards, to people affected by the economic crisis due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

During the hearing, prosecutors Auris Rodríguez and Solangel Fuentes argued that the official should remain detained because of  the risk posed by the accused “due to the plurality of cases she maintains and the seriousness of the nature of the crime.”

 According to the Public Ministry, the official is holding seven other hearings related to the same type of crime to the detriment of beneficiaries of the Digital Voucher program.

The program was created by the AIG in 2020 in the middle of the pandemic, under the administration of Luis Oliva now running for deputy.

 Last year, Luis Carlos Stoute, now former deputy administrator of the AIG, filed a complaint for alleged ‘irregularities or clear indications’ of possible commission of crimes against the public administration, in the management of the Digital Voucher platform.

The whistleblower’s reward was removal from his position.