Alleged leaks in the oppositions of the Basque Health Service (Osakidetza) have forced the regional government to paralyze the tests of various specialties. Both the opposition groups and the unions have denounced this week the alleged “crony plug” that predominates in the administration, which they accuse of favoring certain people who obtained much higher grades than the rest of the applicants. In the midst of a storm, the Minister of Health, Jon Darpón, asserted yesterday that he will not “tremble his pulse” when taking action against any type of “irregularity” in the procedure.
That’s how firm the nationalist president was, who was cornered in the plenary session of control this Friday by the rest of the parties of the Basque Parliament.
Darpón asserted that the Osakidetza Public Employment Offer (OPE) “has been convened with all the guarantees”, and added that he will not question the “honesty” of the 1,300 public administration professionals who correct the exams. Despite everything, he pointed out that he will work to clarify the possible irregularities that have emerged in some of the tests.
Specifically, the scandal affects the categories of Angiology and Vascular Surgery, Anesthesia, Plastic Surgery and Cardiology, which have already been provisionally paralyzed. A measure that, according to the general director of Osakidetza, María Jesús Múgica, starts with the aim of “ensuring the objectivity and transparency” of the OPE, of which the exams of 67 specialties have already been carried out. In any case, the Autonomous Health Service stated that it will review all the evidence.
The case gained strength last Monday, when several parties represented in the Basque Chamber expressed their doubts about the legitimacy of the Osakidetza OPE 2016/17. Among them, Elkarrekin Podemos, who insinuated that some of the 90,000 candidates who appeared in the process were intentionally “favoured”: “Some people have come to the tests doped,” denounced the leader of the purple formation Cristina Macagaza, who alluded to the Vascular Surgery examinations, in which three applicants obtained a score of one hundred out of one hundred.
In fact, the spokesman for the parliamentary group of Elkarrekin Podemos, Lander Martínez, registered a notarial certificate a week before the tests with the name and surnames of several applicants who, in his opinion, would be able to carry out the oppositions. He was not mistaken: “These are clear indications of filtration,” they stressed from the party. Despite Osakidetza’s call for calm, the case will also reach the Prosecutor’s Office of the Superior Court of Justice of the Basque Country (TSJPV) at the request of the ELA and LAB unions, who demanded the suspension of the oppositions.
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