Police arrested the national commercial director of the Social Security Institute Tuesday; another snag in the nation’s already bogged down social security system.
The Technical Investigations Team of the Police arrested in Bogota, Carlos Alberto Quintero, the national commercial director for the Social Security Institute along with three other officials.
An internal investigation aided by the Prosecutor General’s Office reported that in 2008 when Quintero and the other officials held different positions in the Department of Pensions of Social Security in Manizales, they took advantage of pension-seekers by accepting money in order to expedite the pension process. According to investigators, the officials took the money but the expedition requests were never fulfilled.
“After a two-year investigation, the Prosecutor General with the help of the ISS (Social Security Institute) established that Mr. Quintero had charged over 14 Million pesos ($7,826 USD) to one person to help them with some procedures and offered them amnesty that did not exist,” said the director of the ISS Silvia Helena Ramirez in a report from RCN Radio.
Rene Antonio Naranjo Perez, Alberto Parra Arroyabe and Gustavo Adolfo Ortega Cortes were the three officials that were captured by authorities along with the commercial director Caracol Radio reported Wednesday.
On top of these most recent corruption allegations, the Social Security Institute has been bogged down with over 75,000 unresolved claims totalling $55,000 and plaintiffs against the entity allege irregularities in the institute’s payment of pensions, funeral aid, and failure to comple judicial orders to pay customers.
