OIJ investigates a cooperative that managed to cut 17,000 public employees across 30 entities

name Cooperative Education RL He was little known until a few days ago, when he was embroiled in a controversy over his demands that thousands of public servants deduct resources from the government. National Treasury Ministry of Finance.

It was only eight days ago that the Ministry of Finance announced that the reduced amount would be returned to the total amount. 17,876 officials 30 public institutions and 2,584 pensioners were informed Complaints and Judicial investigation Follow the co-op.

According to the Treasury Department, Court Cases It is addressed in File No. 24-023677-0042-PE.

He is in charge of a special department Scams and Fraud Registry of Judicial Investigative Organizations (Oijee).

The Ministry of Finance said they did not submit complainbut they have been providing the requested information on the open cases.

The OIJ press office confirmed Opening a fileBut he said he could not provide further details due to Article 295 of the Costa Rican Code of Criminal Procedure.

But what is cooperative education? How did it happenhow he asked the national treasury to deduct civil servants’ salaries, and why he is under investigation.

what is it?

The organization is called the Cooperative for International Marketing and Related Global Project Import and Export Services (Coopeeducation) and is registered with the U.S. Department of Commerce. Social Organizations Ministry of Labour and Social Security (MTSS) and National Registry.

It was established in August 2018. Traditional Modelaccording to documents held by the MTSS Social Organization Department.

Article 15 Cooperative Associations Act It is stipulated that organizations under this model are consumption, production, marketing, supply, savings and credit, housing, service, school, youth, transportation and other organizations, generally with any legitimate purpose and in accordance with the principles and spirit of cooperation.

The Coopeeducation Charter, incorporated into the document, states that the overall objective of the entity is to “manage School supplies Through a collaborative model, the quality of education can be improved, leading to better integrated multidisciplinary work, Colleague benefits their families, their communities and our country as a whole.”

Its specific objectives are to:

• market Education Package It is measured by the number of school goods that meet the educational needs of the student sector.
• Train one Sales Team and Consultants The AD will visit every parent in Costa Rica, whether in the public or private sector, to provide better advice when purchasing an education plan.
• Define processes and procedures to meet consumer protection standards. environmentto adapt to the new legal requirements of this case, as well as content related to the storage of recyclable solid waste, to bring benefits to members and increase the income of the cooperative.

The information recorded in the document indicates that the location of the cooperative is Plantain BushCarmen of Guadalupe.

The profile of the colleague described is mainly the profile of a group of people parents.

The person who appears as the general manager in various documents is Donovan Malenco Molinahis mobile number CRHoy.com contacted him to talk about what happened with the National Treasury.

This is answer He sent a message via WhatsApp:

The question related to what happened is Internal issues between our institution and our active or passive colleagues, and therefore any issues related to inconvenience They are confidentialwe regret what happened, so our cooperative is looking for solutions and everyone will be rewarded with our upcoming projects and information for the Costa Rican people No transfer to third parties Off topic. Most importantly, you know in your capacity that we are open to any interviews related to future projects, solutions have been sought, it is just an internal system issue that is being improved, we appreciate your attention to this subject, and if you wish, we are happy if you convey the message from our agency, if it is good for the people, we will be grateful because we will soon announce the recruitment of more than 4,000 jobs in all provinces.

When the publication asked him to expand on the cooperative’s business, he wrote: “I think I know very well.kind regards”.

Deductions

Mauricio ArroyoThe country’s deputy finance minister insisted that the law obliged the Ministry of Finance to comply with requests from social organizations to make deductions from wages.

He explained that in granting the so-called Deduction Code Conduct a legal review and research whether the entity complies with the requirements.

In this case, according to him, the Coopeducación requested in 2019 and received Authorization Because it is registered with the Ministry of Labor and the National Registry, in addition to providing bank customer accounts.

“They submitted all the documents and got the authorization in 2019, and what they did recently is Reactivate these services. Again, they provide the appropriate documentation to request the codes, and from there we activate those codes and then move on to the next process, which is sending the documents,” he said.

Arroyo said that in the case of Coopeeducación, most of the deductions it requested were for connect to the Co-operative. The reduction per person is £15,000.

“We authorize the entity and tell them what they can do and how to access the files. The files are sent on the first day of every month and what we do is Keep in salary The person receives the amount. A few days later, the entity receives the payment. We cannot legally collect membership fees We can’t ask them. What they deduct from the salary and refund is the membership fee,” he said.

complaint

The Minister of Finance, Noji Acostasaid he ordered the cessation of transfers to the cooperative and the return of the reduced funds to public officials, as well as the cancellation of the deduction code of Coopeeducación RL.

Arroyo admitted There are complaints Some officials said the cooperative did not respond to their queries, while others claimed they had no connection with the entity. In addition to this, a judicial complaint was also filed.

“We have rescinded the rights that that entity had and the codes will no longer be usable and we have made Rewards to the affected officers,” he added.

The National Treasury repaid a total of ¢223.125.000,00 Reduce staff and ¢38.760.000,00 Deductions for pensioners, according to the Ministry of Finance.