For Gladys Bejerano, Comptrellor General of Cuba, the most noted corruption case in the country in decades, that of former Deputy Prime Minister and former Minister of Economy Alejandro Gil, felt like a “treayal.”

The top auditor of ministries and state companies of the socialist country highlights in an interview with EFE the “connotations” of the scandal, becoming the first senior Cuban official to talk about Gil since the investigation was announced two months ago.

“It hurts and hurts a lot because one thinks as a companion – and the people, as a Cuban – that a person who has been at that level, who has been handling the situations, the sacrifices that have had to be made,.. That he doesn’t have an attitude in correspondence, one really feels it as a betrayal, as something that is not the right thing, and that’s how we all feel. But there is moral and there is courage to face it,” he says.

Bejerano, 77, has been in charge of the Office of the Comptroller General and twenty years old. He advocates extracting “teachings” from this “sadly negative lesson.”

Gil was dismissed as Minister of Economy on February 2 without public explanations and on March 7 the president of Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel, announced that he was accused of “serious errors.” He spoke, without details, of “corruption”, “simulation” and “insensitivity.”

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CEL

“Every time there has been an event, it has been made public. I can assure you that,” says this member of the central committee of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC, the only legal one), convinced that “sooner than later and to the extent of being objective” “all the information” will be provided.

He emphasizes that the Cuban system does not minimize corruption “neither for the amount nor because it is from below or above,” although he understands that this case has “more meaning.” He clarifies that the investigation into Gil did not start from the Office of the Comptroller General.

Bejerano recognizes that the crisis has increased corruption in Cuba somewhat because “there is a greater need” and a shortage of “everything,” although it “does not justify.” Some people, he points out, “give in to the black market” and others take advantage, “even cruelly.”

It indicates that 76% of the illegalities detected occur “at the base level” and that its “battle” is to reduce them to “zero”, for a question of “principles” and “convictions” of the revolution.

“People don’t fall into parachute corruption. It’s a process: corruption is decomposition. It is a process of loss of values, of self-esteem, of self-respect (…). There are others that are for self-sufficiency, for vanity, for arrogance,” he describes.

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CEL

Bejerano admits that 23% of the country’s control systems have deficiencies, mainly due to lack of technical or human capabilities (only 60% of the positions of the Office of the Comptroller General are filled): “The controls are not at the level” that the Comptroller’s Office wants and that the country, the Government and the PCC need, he says.

He also explains that the GAESA business conglomerate, of the Armed Forces, is not under his supervision. This state group – which includes telecommunications, almost the entire tourism sector, remittances, import and distribution firms, banks, gas stations, real estate and other businesses – is the main contribution to the gross domestic product (GDP).

He argues that GAESA has “superior discipline and organization” for its decades of business experience and that the Office of the Comptroller’s Office concentrates “forces” where “advances” are needed.

About the link between corruption and the growing inequalities in the country, Bejerano links it to the emergence of the private sector and points out that some people have more because they work and “have results,” but believes that there are also “illegalities.”

“We are not going to admit either state or private individuals who commit such crimes and who offend and mistreat the people. That can’t be allowed: it’s not what we want, it’s not the model. We want honest, fighting and hardworking people to be able to have their business in order, fulfilling their obligations to the treasury, to society,” he replies.

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Regarding the execution of the budget, also the competence of the Comptroller’s Office, it goes on the set that so far this year “income was fulfilled” and “expenses were reduced.” “There is a behavior, we could say, favorable,” he says, although he often points out that “it is not that the problem is already solved” because the public deficit is “quite high.”