Ivan the Terrible isn’t resting on his laurels. He’s now going after the “phantom job” rackets, that milk the government coffers of hundreds of millions of Quetzales each year.
Some of the most respected and honorable politicians in Guatemala, will soon be shamed and jailed. With Otto and Roxana now behind bars, arrests of those involved in the “phantom job racket”, are taking place on an almost daily basis.
There are “phantom jobs” everywhere in Guatemala; in the Congress, Education Department, Defense Department, Police, Immigration, the Airport, the Justice Department, the Customs Department, the City Councils, Municipalities and in departments no one has even heard of, that fleece the government each year of some 20% of it’s annual budget.
The “phantom job racket” is not to be confused with the “nepotism racket” or the “payments of commissions racket”, nor any of the other numerous rackets that Guatemalans come up with, as a means to ripp off their government.
Those who operate their own “phantom job rackets” within the government are looked upon with respect by many, indifference by others and disdain by a few and are considered “cabrónes” (bastards who have outsmarted the system to get ahead). Their rackets are so valuable, that when someone leaves a government post or is transferred, they often put their “phantom job portfolios” up for sale to the highest bidder and people pay exorbitant amounts of money to purchase them.
The more enterprising operators of “phantom job portfolios”, actually leave their “income portfolio” in place when transferred to a different position of influence within the government and simply start a new “phantom job portfolio”, where they are now at. Within a few short years, they are able to enjoy the benefits of having “multiple income streams”, derived from “phantom jobs”.
In the Guatemalan Congress, there are 158 sitting members and many of them are involved in the practice of running “phantom jobs” as part of their “income portfolio”. A Congressman earns around Q24 thousand Quetzales a month and along with his food budget and other allowances, he can claim up to Q36.5 thousand a month which comes to Q438 thousand a year, but . . . this is never enough for them.
Take the case of Congressman and Businessman Pedro Muadi Menéndez, who was President of the Congress between 2013 and 2014 and in who’s mouth, butter wouldn’t melt. Muadi is the perfect image of the bright, enterprising, young and dynamic leader into who’s hands the middle class and elite, would place the future of Guatemala. However his greed and hippocracy, knows no bounds.
When Muadi assumed the presidency of the Congress, he gave a long winded speech that said all the right things about honesty, hope etc., and included this little gem; ” . . . from day one, I will develop means and methods of increasing transparency in the legislature and attempt to bring credibility and dignity to the office”.
Muadi’s salary as President of the Congress was Q60 thousand a month, as well as an expense allowance of Q25 thousand a month for what he saw fit (over Q1 Million a year). However, that wasn’t enough for him. When the CICIG began to investigate, they thought he only had 15 “phantom employees” but on closer examination they learned that he actually had 50 “phantom employees”, on his congressional payroll.
Muadi is also the owner of a large “security firm” that has hundreds of armed guards who he contracts out to serve as security personnel in the private sector. These are the types of armed guards you see everywhere in Guatemala; lurking in the streets, outside shops and supermarkets or riding around on motorcycles.
The first step in setting up his “phantom employee portfolio” as President of the Congress, was to increase the number of “security personnel” on the congressional payroll, by adding 50 additional guards.
These guards however, were already employees of Muadi’s, working at his “security firm” at routine assignments and were promised an additional Q2 thousand a month, on top of their standard measly wages, if they let him use their names and bank accounts. These “security guards” didn’t have to do anything additional to their normal jobs and certainly had little or no idea, of what Muadi was up to.
Muadi of course, never actually dirtied his hands arranging anything with his “security guards” and instead had Ana Lucía Reyes Bolaños, his company secretary and trusted employees Rony David Ruano López and Héctor Augusto Reyes Gómez, select which “security guards” would be used in the scam, a common practice in Guatemala, where the rich and powerful have almost godlike powers of the needy.
The additional “security guards” were duly contracted by the Congress, without having to turn up to apply for their jobs, and put on the congressional payroll, complete with holiday pay, Bono 14, sick leave and termination pay benefits etc., as bona fide employees. Each month, each “phantom security guard” received a pay check from the Congress, for the sum of Q8 thousand Quetzales, which was deposited to their personal bank accounts.
Reyes Bolaños, who was also Muadi’s “personal assistant” in Congress as well as his secretary/manager at his “security firm”, took care of the next step in the “theft process”, assisted by Ruano López and Reyes Gómez. With 50 cheques to process each month, it was more than one person could handle.
Assisted by Ruano López and Reyes Gómez, Reyes Bolaños clipped the “phantom security guards staff cards” each day, marked them as having checked in and checked out of their shifts, collected the congressional pay cheques due to them and deposited them to each “security guard’s” bank account.
To make sure the “phantom security guards” didn’t steal from the thieves, Muadi’s team immediately withdrew the sum of Q6 thousand from each account, utilizing cheques (leaving Q2 thousand in the account as agreed). She and her assistants then deposited these cheques in Muadi’s main business bank account, in other words in his own “security company’s” bank account.
Some of the “security guards” had no bank accounts, so the congressional cheques issued to them, were simply endorsed over to Muadi’s “security company” and Reyes Bolaños paid the “security guards” their Q2 thousand in cash.
Q6 thousand Quetzales a month from each of the 50 phantom “security guards” amounts to Q3.6 Million Quetzales a year, which in Guatemala, is nothing to sneeze at.
As we can see by her picture on the left, Reyes Bolaños probably isn’t the sharpest tool in the shed and just did as she was told by Congressman Muadi, in return for an extra Q5 thousand in cash, each a month. Now pregnant and in jail, she will probably be there a long time, while Muadi has “immunity” from prosecution, tho moves are afoot to remove it and prosecute him.
The current President of the Congress Luis Rabbé, a card carrying member of Manuel Baldizon’s political party LIDER, is regularly mentioned as a major operator of “phantom job rackets”, as he’s been a member of Congress for a long time.
Venemous tounges who are in the know, claim that the “phantom job rackets” have become a “life style” and that Roberto Alejos (ex president of the Congress, founder of Alfonso Portillo’s party TODOS) steals Q5 million a year via his “phantom employee portfolio”, just like Christian Boussinot (ex vice president of the Congress, member of Alfonso Portillo’s party TODOS), who steals Q2.5 millon each year.
The very jealous, claim that the king of this scam is Arístido Crespo (member of the PP – Partido Patriota, seventh term in Congress) and that he steals Q100 million each year, in this manner.
There are many others of course and it’s no coincidence that amongst Guatemala’s “most corrupt” list, many Lebanese/Arabic surnames keep cropping up and even though the CICIG (Guatemalan International Commission against Impunity) will do it’s utmost to de-articulate these operations, they will re-emerge like the Hydra of Lerna. Each time one is decapitated, it will be replaced by two more. It’s doubtful that the ingrained corruption in Guatemala will ever be purged.
Opinion/Politics: © J. Russell September 13, 2015
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