Spanish
The Comptroller General of the Republic installed a new Internal Audit Unit (UAI) at the headquarters of the National Health Insurance (Senasa), at the express request of its new incumbent Edward Guzmán, as part of a process of strengthening internal control and preventing irregularities.
The opening act was led by the Comptroller General of the Republic, Félix Santana García, who highlighted that "internal control is an essential tool to protect institutions, strengthen public trust, and ensure that every peso of the State is used correctly and transparently."
Furthermore, he emphasized that "the will of the new incumbent of Senasa, to request the accompaniment of the Comptroller's Office, responds to the preventive and corrective vision of governmental control oriented to the principles of legality, efficiency and transparency demanded by the citizenry."
For his part, Dr. Edward Guzmán, executive director of Senasa, when thanking the Comptroller's Office for its support, highlighted that the inauguration of this internal control unit represents a milestone in the management of social security, reaffirming the institutional commitment to transparency and the ethical management of public resources.
Guzmán emphasized that this strategic alliance with the Comptroller General of the Republic will allow to strengthen the oversight of the processes without sacrificing the operational agility demanded by the more than seven million affiliates. "Our goal is to ensure that every peso allocated to health translates into timely and quality services, strictly aligning ourselves with the accountability policies of the Executive Branch."
He added that the entity needs to guarantee a payment flow to more than 7,000 providers nationwide and health services to 75% of the Dominican population, so he indicated that "we have to do it transparently, but at the same time operationally viable and feasible."
During the event, it was recalled that Senasa is an institution governed by Law 87-01, which creates the Dominican Social Security System (SDSS) and establishes the Superintendency of Health and Occupational Risks (Sisalril), which stipulates that this institution is its regulatory body, so any intervention in matters of internal control must be carried out strictly respecting the legal framework.
Article 2 of the aforementioned law expressly states that the complementary regulations governing the SDSS include Sisalril resolutions, and these explain that Senasa is under the supervision and regulation of that Superintendency, within the framework of Law 87-01 and its complementary regulations.
In that regard, Santana García specified that "the installation of an Internal Audit Unit could not be executed arbitrarily by the Comptroller's Office, but rather based on a formal request from the entity itself, as has occurred in this case."
The official stated that it is necessary for the Comptroller's Office, as the governing body of internal control of the State, to promote preventive practices that contribute to institutional stability, the strengthening of public management, and the preservation of the population's trust.
Similarly, he maintained that by mandate of Law 10-07, in its articles 25 and 26, the head of each entity or organization under the scope of the aforementioned law is responsible for the implementation of internal control in their institution, with the collaboration of the public servants that comprise it.
The inauguration ceremony was also attended by the director of Governmental Internal Audit Units, Juan Sierra; Antony Rodríguez Germosén, manager of Inspection and Control of Senasa; the head of the new UAI, Águeda García and her supervisor, Carmen Lugo, among other personalities.
