The case of the "civil servants" who improperly received the "middle class bonus" in Chile

Abstract

The purpose of this investigation was to elucidate the veracity of the number of 37,100 Chilean "public servants" who, according to the Chilean Internal Revenue Service (SII), improperly received the state benefit known as "middle class bonus". In this context, the right of access to information that public institutions must comply with as stipulated by Law 20.285 was also evaluated. Finally, we inquired about the sanctioning measures taken by public entities in the case of officials who breached probity by improper collection.

Regarding the methodological strategy, the quantitative method was used, applying a survey as a mechanism for collecting information and the use of official databases. The analysis of the information was of a descriptive statistical nature.

The main findings were: a) from what was publicly communicated by the SII, the figure was reduced to 29,426 cases (20%), of which 10,829 were public officials(37%), leaving 18,567 cases (63%) pending of which it was not possible to determine whether they had this status; b) the exercise of the right of access to information was affected by some of the institutions investigated by unjustified denial; c) a deficient management and communication of data between the public agencies studied was detected; and d) a low level of enforced sanctions against officials who committed a breach of probity by collecting the bonus was found.