While the Ecuadorian Attorney General’s Office (FGE) is conducting investigations into acts of corruption in the public sector during the coronavirus health emergency, a new scandal has broken out in the country, related to the use of disability cards for alleged acts of fraud, by officials.
The controversy erupted when the portal history made public the names of some of those involved, through their account on Twitter. Those allegedly used the document to import goods with tax exemptions
Although the medium brought out political cases, the Minister of Public Health, Juan Carlos Zevallos, declared that there are also professional soccer players involved and announced that when the investigations are known, there will be surprises hurting society.
“There are soccer players who have disability cards, that could be the reason why they don’t score goals,” the head of the health portfolio said ironically.
According to the National Council for Equality of Disabilities (CONADIS), in Ecuador, there are 485,325 people registered – until last Friday, July 3 – with different types of disabilities: physical, intellectual, hearing, visual and psychological.
According to La Historia, among those involved in these events are legislators from the National Assembly (Congress) and family members, a governor, a mayor, and other public administration officials.
In addition to these politicians, there are also 64 national judges with disability cards. In the last two years, 11 of them imported luxury cars with tax exemptions.
The Ministry of Public Health has reported that at least 2,281 disability cards were issued illegally during the health emergency due to the coronavirus pandemic.
