Ihss Scandal

Honduras awarded a 49.7 million lempiras (about $2 million) contract for a national early-alert platform to a consortium including International Technology Group, a company identified as connected to a scheme that siphoned roughly 7 billion lempiras from the social-security institute.

A criminal court absolved former officials Mario Zelaya and Ramón Bertetty of violating their official duties in an IHSS procurement case, ruling the adjudication was approved by the board rather than a personal infraction, though both have faced multiple other convictions related to IHSS embezzlement.

A corruption court convicted three former Social Security Institute officials, including Mario Roberto Zelaya and José Ramón Bertetty, of ongoing fraud in a 2016 CNA investigation into overpriced contracts for work at Hospital Regional del Norte, sentencing them to nine years and four months in prison.