The abuse of sick leave is nothing new, but in recent years this has reached epic proportions and the emission of fraudulent medical certificates had become a national industry.
Dorothy Pérez, the head of the Contraloria, Chiles government auditing service, recently started an investigation that, by cross-checking, discovered 25,000 cases of government employees who had traveled outside the country during their “illnesses”.
The usual media mouthpieces have voiced their shocked responses to this latest scandal, and no doubt some heads will roll.
But this is only the tip of the iceberg as it only covers abuse by public servants traveling out of Chile.
Some public institutions are resisting this investigation, while the commie-dominated Colegio Medico has remained strangely silent.
This use of available statistics to compile cross checks seems new in Chile, but could be usefully expanded to cover for example, the emission of boletas de honorarios while supposedly on sick leave.
There seems no limit to what people will do to defraud the system, given the laxity of the current administration, so its about time some controls were put in place. Its ironic that the offenders come from the well-paid and notoriously inefficient public sector.
And EMOL has dug up a public-sector skeleton from 2020:
In 2020, in the midst of the pandemic, the Internal Revenue Service (SII) revealed that 37,100 fiscal employees had collected the middle-class bonus (CLP$500,000) without meeting the eligibility requirements. As is the case today, the reactions five years ago focused on the announcement of administrative proceedings and the opening of a criminal investigation by the prosecutor’s office. However, the outcome of those proceedings has not yet been made public.
Those overpaid “public servants” didn’t miss a days pay during the pandemic, but I bet that no attempts have been made to recover the cash mistakenly handed out to those undeserving sinvergüenzas.
Ever since the end of the scamdemic and the resumption of my multiple per year trips back to the States, I’ve been baffled by how every LATAM flight to LAX goes out full. Given the supposed cramp on finances on more or less honest workers in the private sector since 18O, the Scamdemic and gross commie mismanagement/robbery, I was left scratching my head as CHILEAN families with babies to kids below formal schooling age made up the overwhelming majority on outgoing flights and half or more on the return flights at times of the year way out of Chilean summer vacation schedule.
Now I have a pretty good idea of what I was seeing, overpaid public employees on medical leave on their trips to the extranjero.
Need to check out if is possible to quickly short:
Viajes Falabella
Despegar
Booking
LATAM
Sky
Jetsmart
Etc.
Another observation, ever since the end of the Scamdemic, the Alameda bus station is more crowded than before on Fridays and the beginning and ending of long weekend holidays. I will have to assume theses are the other public sector non-extranjero traveling Chileans on paid vacation taking the family to the coast and other parts every weekend as much as possible.
Looking at what the DOGE is attempting to do in the US to at least in principle rein in the massive levels of public employee fraud… maybe something similar ought to be implemented in Chilito. Along with refurbished guillotines for the offenders.
Nah… this country lives for fraud, waste, and abuse.
My husband has a government job, so he has seen the abuses of medical leave for many years. It’s bad. One example, a former manager of his spent probably six months on some sort of leave per year. I don’t know if she traveled abroad. When they were remote during the pandemic, she was always calling him from Jumbo or her mother’s apartment. This year, she was finally let go, but with a nice severance. He says at least he can be exempt from any scrutiny since he hasn’t had a licencia since 2018.
In a curious inversion of the ancient proverb “Physician, heal thyself”, all the staff at this public clinic granted themselves sick leave:
According to the comptroller’s office, the investigation arose “after discovering that the only Cesfam (Center for Medical Assistance) in the commune is lacking medical care, given that the seven staff members who work at the health center are on medical leave.”
Furthermore, the complaints allege that the same physicians granted medical leave to each other, “generating a progressive absence at the health center.”
Reminds us of the Chilean surgeons watching a football match during surgery on an anesthetized patient. One of oh so many reminders concerning the nature of the medical industry in the country.
And of course we would expect such abuse from the Boric family. Story "Scandal in Chile: Gabriel Boric’s sister-in-law resigns after traveling abroad on medical leave." Other news reports that Boric government attempted to conceal evidence of the resignation and reason.
Meanwhile, in the excessively funded “eco-feminism” ministry: Ecofeminism mining ministry worker resigns: on ‘medical leave’ for almost 10 months
Chilean school teacher takes paid medical leave to go skiing in Europe. Read all about it…
More than 1000 public workers removed from their posts as a result of these investigations. Reportedly another 6000 under investigation.
Chile is indeed the poster child for shameless viveza criolla.
