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Published Tuesday, March 3, 2020
Deputies grill minister onthe controversial data unit By the A.M. Costa Rica staff The minister of the Presidency faced lawmakers Monday to explain the administration's position in a growing scandal focused on the collection of personal data by a special unit answerable only to the president. The minister, Víctor Morales-Mora, told lawmakers that the special unit never had access to civilian data such as credit card information, salaries, bank accounts, judicial or medical background or of a fiscal or banking nature. Lawmakers met in an unusual extraordinary session to hear the minister. "There were no telephone interventions, surveillance cameras, or instant messaging interventions," Morales said. According to Morales, "exaggerations, speculations, suspicions and lies have been made," which he said "served so that the differences rooted in society will contaminate a debate." "We recognized that it was a mistake not to explain in advance and sufficient work mechanisms to make clear absolute respect for everyone's privacy," Morales said. The disclosure that President Carlos Alvarado-Quesada set up a special data collection unit became top news last week when the attorney general authorized a search of the Presidential House along with another ministry and some private homes. The Defensora de los Habitantes, the nation's ombudsman had issued a negative report on the data unit, including allegations that the vehicle fleet of the U.S. Embassy has been under surveillance. Social media also has weighed in on the situation, sometimes with unsupported allegations. The president and seven aides are facing possible crimes that have been listed as a personal data breach, abuse of authority and prevarication. The legal term prevarication or perverting the course of justice is a crime that consists of an authority issuing an arbitrary resolution in an administrative or judicial matter knowing that said resolution is unfair and contrary to the law. According to the government, the creation of the Presidential Unit for Data Analysis had the goal of helping with policy setting and decision making. Some have said that the unit operated in secret, something that the government has denied vigorously. The government insisted that "The data analysis team never operated in secret." "On the contrary, their profile was public, their products were posted on the Internet promptly, and it was formally presented to representatives of different sectors of society and public administration institutions," said the government in a public post on social media. According to the government, since March 2019 both the analyzers and the results of their work were presented publicly, on several occasions, such as with: - In the Comptroller General of the Republic. - the Ministry of Labor. - the National Statistics Institute. - students of the University of Costa Rica. - representatives of the Inter-American Development Bank. - representatives of the World Bank, among others. Lawmakers asked Morales to appear Monday because explanations are required due to the creation of a civilian data investigation unit, and the subsequent repeal of that unit "after the government was accused of having access to sensitive information of Costa Ricans." The unit obtained or tried to obtain data from the various government institutions According to Deputy Roberto Thompson-Chacón, as the prosecution concluded many of these data were transferred without due legal support and their management despite being confidential. Also, the deputies exposed their disapproval on the situation where it is presumed that the decree creating the unit was illegal and that the employees of the unit used free software that allowed third parties to disrupt the data. Morales said that the raids ordered by the Attorney General's Office was done in the right way "in which all Costa Ricans trust such as laws, procedural guarantees, and administration of justice." According to the prosecutor, in addition to Alvarado, the other persons being investigated are: Morales, himself; Daniel Soto-Castro, vice minister of Planning; Felly Salas-Hernández, office director of the president; Luis Fernando Salazar-Muñoz, a legal advisor, and three persons who worked directly with the databases with information on civilians. They were identified as Diego Fernández-Montero, Alejandro Madrigal-Rivas and Andrés Villalobos-Villalobos. On the same day of the searches, the legal adviser, Salazar-Muñoz, resigned his job at Presidential House. He was involved in creating the decree that Alvarado used to create the unit. The decree, too, is controversial. A legislative statement said that the data analysis unit was created without the authorization of the National Planning Ministry. That also was a topic of discussion when lawmakers questioned Morales Monday. According to the government, Salazar Muñoz will continue his duties, ad-honorem, as presidential commissioner for LGBTIQ population issues. LGBTQ stands for lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transgenders and those who are questioning their sexual identity. Friday, the day of the searches, Alvarado said, "I understand that it is the way in which our democratic institutionality can make the truth known and give citizens confidence." He said in a video. "This issue must follow its due process. It is our will, desire and duty to expedite it." According to the investigation, the data unit had been working since May 2018. For more than a year and eight months, Madrigal, Villalobos and Fernández served as data consultants for that department. "It is alleged that they formed a government unit to compile and analyze data for the alleged execution of public policies, apparently without any legal backing," said prosecutors in a statement. This group sought personal and sensitive data of citizens from different institutions, and Alvarado was aware of this, according to the prosecutor. According to the Prosecutor's Office, Alvarado, and his two ministers, Morales and Soto, issued a decree to continue developing this activity, although they knew that they were breaking the law. Given the controversy created by this decree, a few hours later, the president said that he had revoked the decree and with it, the data analysis unit. Attorney General Emilia Navas was present at the search on the Presidential House, which lasted until Friday night. The search at the Ministry of Planning began on Friday and finished on Saturday. Judicial agents seized computers, cell phones and documents for the case. Among the confiscated cell phones are the cell phone assigned to Alvarado and the cell phone assigned to Morales. The Ombudsman's Office said that the main findings of its investigation were that the decree to create that special unit was contrary to the legal system by not complying with the procedure since it lacked technical studies and expert consultation on data protection. In the decree, there were no guidelines following the data protection law that include data identification, security and custody of the data obtained, the ombudsman said, adding that Article 7 of that decree could be illegal or unconstitutional, which made the unit inadmissible from the legal point of view. Article 8 of the decree anticipated hiring a data protection or cybersecurity expert, but this was not done, the office added. The Ombudsman's Office concluded that the advisors who worked on the data analysis for 18 months at the Presidential House performed their duties without legal support to justify their scope, limitations and responsibilities. Likewise, that team did not have the technological and infrastructure resources required to perform the tasks, which made them a de facto and not a legal organization, it added. Alvarado, in the face of the controversy, said he ordered an investigation into the process of preparing the decree that he and his key authorities created and annulled. According to the government, the investigation "will be directed by the lawyer, Carlos Elizondo-Vargas, secretary of the Governing Council." "We are ready to continue efforts that clarify everything regarding the creation of the decree and therefore, we have prioritized this investigation to be done most promptly," said Silvia Lara, deputy minister of the Presidency. ----------------------- Should the Prosecutor's Office accelerates the investigation process due to the importance of the authorities involved? We would like to know your thoughts on this story. Send your comments to news@amcostarica.com |
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