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On the morning of this Wednesday, November 4, Dr. Jorge Acosta connected in a videoconference with the 29 directors of health services throughout the country. He was calling to say goodbye. Arturo Zúñiga’s chief of staff was leaving in a much more silent way than the undersecretary of Assistance Networks, who was in charge of filtering his imminent departure from the Ministry of Health at least since Friday afternoon, when the versions that began to circulate questioned his continuity in government
Acosta left surprised and sad. His natural aspiration was to be appointed undersecretary of Healthcare Networks. A sympathizer of the most conservative sector of RN, for years, as executive director of the Res Publica Institute, he dedicated himself to defending the “value issues” of the official agency and, furthermore, he could show that during his tenure the hospital network did not face the dilemma of the “last bed”. But it was not enough. He was not close to the mayor of Santiago, Felipe Alessandri, and even less had the support of La Moneda’s chief adviser, Cristián Larroulet, a link that did put him at one point as a real alternative to succeed Zúñiga.
It was at a meeting on the second floor of La Moneda that Minister Enrique Paris was informed that the decision was different. Despite this, in the Minsal they counted Acosta’s attempts to remain in his position as chief of staff with the new undersecretary, Alberto Dougnac, and that it was he who after 6:00 p.m. yesterday was in charge of making the “delivery ”Official of the distribution to the new authority.
Acosta’s departure is related to La Moneda’s decision to remove Zúñiga’s closest team and, for the same reason, the directors of health services expressed their annoyance to the doctor during the farewell videoconference.
Since July and August, the Comptroller’s Office began a series of audits in health services such as Arauco and hospitals such as Sótero del Río, El Pino, San Borja Arriarán, Barros Luco, among others, to monitor the use of public resources for the purchase of personal protection elements, or the implementation of care centers such as the Modular Hospital of Rengo. The service directors know that Acosta and Zúñiga gave the order to spend outside the budget framework, but that it will be the doctors who will have to face eventual account judgments. The results of these investigations and a “consolidated report” of all the inquiries made by the Regional Comptrollers’ Offices, could be available in mid-December. And it is largely the reason for the quick and planned departure of Arturo Zúñiga del Minsal.
“Could we have made mistakes? Yes, but it was with only one intention: to be able to attend to patients, and if perhaps we improperly made a contract, it will have to be corrected, but the intention was always to take care of the public, “said the former undersecretary to Third, using the words of a trained politician.
These days Zúñiga warned in the press that his plan was to leave the ministry to pursue a political career. Since October, the now former undersecretary has toured the O’Higgins Region with his respective photo on Instagram, documenting his visits to the field, in places such as the El Manzano post, along with deputy Javier Macaya (UDI). In this territorial deployment, the work of the lawyer José Francisco Lagos, who was under contract at Minsal for a gross monthly income of 2.9 million, has been fundamental. In Zúñiga’s “campañero” team, his press officer, Pía Valderrama, has also been fundamental, especially when it comes to media control that the ex-undersecretary’s departure is perceived as a simple and successful end of the cycle.
The point is that it is not so. Most of the advisers closest to the former undersecretary, such as Claudio Salinas –also from Res Publica and a councilor for Buin–, Hugo Sáez and Sergio Escobar, are lawyers. At least since September, the group has been working “ordering” and “cleaning” – they affirmed in the Minsal – the contracts that have passed through Zúñiga’s management, in order to respond and get rid of the objections that the Comptroller’s reports will most likely bring. . The then head of Healthcare Networks put them to work after, in mid-September, the Budget Office (Dipres), in a meeting attended by Minister Paris, warned them that many of the extra expenses authorized due to the pandemic had no backing.
Within the framework of the draft Budget Law for next year, Dipres – dependent on the Ministry of Finance – objected to a series of purchases of supplies in the term but without supporting documents, lack of control in the hiring of personnel for hospitals and a generalized administrative disorder.
The situation exhausted La Moneda’s patience and Zúñiga’s political credit line quickly ran out. In the Government for several weeks there had been talk about the end of the era of the undersecretary, who remained in office to “take care of the legacy” of Jaime Mañalich.
The health services in an especially critical financial situation are Valparaíso, Viña del Mar, Quillota, Metropolitano Sur Oriente, Metropolitano Norte, Biobío and three areas where the pandemic has been especially harsh: Araucanía Norte and Sur and the Magallanes Health Service.
Dipres once again called a meeting that was set for Friday, October 30, but the appointment was surprising. Which was an obvious sign that Zúñiga was preparing his lifeboat.
To this group of “solvers” prepared by Zúñiga, who would have advanced a lot in his task of ordering the contracts – according to ministry sources – are joined by the nurse Marcela Zúñiga, the commercial engineer Julio Gutiérrez and the political scientist Andrés Blume.
Comptroller lurking
One of the areas of conflict and irregularities that directly involves Arturo Zúñiga, due to the responsibility of his position, is that of contracts for sanitary residences. For example, in July of this year, the Comptroller’s Office determined that the payment of $ 513 million for a hotel used as a sanitary residence was irregular, because the agreement was verbal and the contract was not found.
In that opinion, the Comptroller’s Office established that “it was defined that in matters of roles and responsibilities of sanitary residences, signing of contracts, definition of value frameworks, application of the use of beds, among other matters, they are the responsibility of the Undersecretariat of Assistance Networks through regional health services. “For this reason, the concern was that cases such as Orlando Durán would be repeated, who had a leadership in the Primary Care Division of Assistance Networks and, at the same time, was listed as a partner of the Hotel Clínico Spa, which was hired as a sanitary residence.Although in the Minsal they emphasized that “there are other firms before his,” all these contracts are the responsibility of Zúñiga, because they bear his signature.
Another front much less clear than that of health residences, the expenses in ventilators or personal protection elements, is that of the construction of hospitals. “The construction of 5 hospitals was accelerated at the beginning of the year. To speed up the construction, several measures were to be skipped, including the municipal reception. Jorge Acosta, the former undersecretary Zúñiga’s chief of staff, was one of those who most insisted on speeding up the administrative processes so that these works were carried out, ”said Deputy Marcela Hernando, who was a member of the Lower House investigative commission on hospital investments.
After a few months, several of these constructions did not register significant progress. Deputy Hernando has consulted the Ministry of Health, especially about the situation at the Barros Luco Hospital. The objective is to specify what exactly was paid to the construction company Astaldi, an Italian firm in the process of reorganization since April last year, after filing for bankruptcy. “What would have been done is to pay beyond what was executed,” said the parliamentarian. The payment order was signed in January and includes Zúñiga’s signature. “I would like to have more information, but I still have not received a response,” Hernando added.
Herrera, the “Mario Rozas del Minsal”
Arturo Zúñiga could pay for the broken dishes of Patricio Herrera, the head of the Investment Division of the Undersecretariat of Public Health, headed by Paula Daza, but whose purchase resolutions include Zúñiga’s signature. Herrera has seen three health ministers pass by and is still there, appearing together with Zúñiga in the purchase of ventilators, in the rental of sanitary residences. Administratively manages resources.
For two months, the Prosecutor’s Office has been investigating him for a possible conflict of interest, when authorizing the payment from the Metropolitan Seremi of $ 48 million to the company of a former partner, Etrend. On September 10, Minister Paris and Undersecretary Daza had a strong discussion about the continuity of Herrera. But the undersecretary was imposed and the official remains in his post.
The prosecutor investigating Herrera is Marcelo Carrasco, the same one who seeks to clarify the magnitude with which the contagion and victims figures were made up. From this investigation comes the struggle between the Minsal and the Prosecutor’s Office for the delivery of the emails that would help to establish how the events occurred during the first months of the pandemic.
Minister Paris asked for a 42-day extension to comply with the Supreme Court ruling that requires him to deliver the exchange of correspondence. Yesterday, within his display in the press after his departure, Arturo Zúñiga was quick to rule out that he had left the post for fear of what those emails might reveal: “In everything that is mail I have not been involved, my E-mails have not been requested by the Prosecutor’s Office, because these issues are not from the Undersecretariat of Assistance Networks, therefore, there is no relationship with those events. I absolutely rule it out. “
However, sources within the Minsal recalled that, in the Mañalich era, the now former undersecretary Zúñiga was part of the narrowest group of advisers to the then minister and that, although he did not participate in what has to do with numbers of infected, he did It would have intervened in the unclear numbers regarding the number of critical beds, available sanitary residences, and personnel protection elements. Zúñiga was in the group closest to Mañalich, along with his former chief of staff Itziar Linasazoro, lawyer Jorge Hübner and journalist Sandra Riffo.
For the deputy Juan Luis Castro (PS), who was a member of the Chamber’s investigative commission on the pandemic, regarding the information requested from the Ministry on expenditures, “there has been very little detail for the timely and timely delivery of much information required on the which was not accessed, and which leaves a great doubt about the management of the finances of the main undersecretary, which is the Assistance Networks, “he said.
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