Controversial results of a new investigation were released this Wednesday afternoon by the Comptroller General of the Republic. According to the entity, a total of 16 people with criminal records for fraud, robbery, theft, assault, and drug trafficking were hired by the National Institute of Statistics (INE) to work on the 2024 Population and Housing Census.
According to the investigation, after analyzing the contracts signed by the office in the different stages of the process, six of the 16 hired individuals presented criminal record certificates that, although they indicated convictions, the company in charge, upon receiving them, failed to validate them with the Civil Registry and Identification Service, so it did not notice that these people had convictions. Likewise, in another 10 cases, the organization directly did not prove that it had requested such certificates when making the hires.
The entity led by Dorothy Pérez also revealed that the INE hired 14 foreigners who were not authorized to work in the country. In detail, five of them are former permanent or temporary/transient residents, whose residency was revoked for various reasons. One of them even had a pending administrative expulsion from the country.
All these people worked in a edition of the Census in which enumerators were prohibited from entering people's homes.
The investigation also found that the INE did not prove that more than 130 hired individuals actually had the educational background required for the positions of Census Local Coordinator and Administrative Manager.
"Due to these control failures, the audited entity did not apply fines in favor of the Treasury for $131,972,500 to the companies hired for the recruitment and selection of workers to perform functions in the 2024 Census," the investigation states.
Other Findings
The previously detected problems were not the only ones, as the investigation also revealed that a former advisor hired by the INE participated as an expert in the evaluation committee of the awarded tender, despite being the legal representative of one of the intervening companies.
Additionally, it was detected that the service could not prove that 515 enumerators actually carried out the assigned tasks - for which they received a payment of $166,356,508 - which implies a lack of supervision and control of the enumerators.
Furthermore, the CGR detected 267 people who provided services to the INE for the execution of the Census and who, between March and June 2024, were simultaneously hired by other public institutions. However, these people did not declare this situation, despite being obliged to do so through simple sworn statements presented to the National Institute of Statistics. For this reason, the cases will be referred to the Public Prosecutor's Office.
The INE allegedly signed 77 lease contracts for offices and census premises nationwide, without technical or formal grounds to support the reason for doing so, nor to justify the selection of the properties over other more favorable options. In this context, it was noted that five of the lease contracts lasted up to 12 months, even though the Census lasted approximately only 5 months, verifying an unjustified payment of $49,430,231.
"It was also verified that the INE, on May 1, 2024, paid $134,243,088 nationwide for the transfer of officials and enumerators, however, the service did not perform census work that day that would justify such payment," the Comptroller's Office stated.
Finally, it was established that the entity in charge of the census process did not plan the destination of the 4,588 computers and 37,529 smartphones acquired for the 2024 process, so after the activity, the equipment remained in rented warehouses for 5 months. As of November 7, 2025, 484 computers and 29,226 smartphones were still stored at the Undersecretariat of National Assets.
Following this investigation, the Comptroller's Office ordered the INE to initiate an administrative summary to determine the possible responsibilities that may arise from the situations detailed in the report. On the other hand, the Comptroller's Office has already filed a claim for $315,645,819. In addition, the reevaluation presented by the audited entity is being analyzed regarding the unjustified payment of $166,356,508 for the work paid to the enumerators that it could not prove was actually carried out. The Undersecretariat of National Assets was also given a period of 60 business days to decide the destination of the stored computers and smartphones.
The INE's Response and the Government's Condemnation
At 7:33 p.m. this Wednesday, the INE issued a statement on the matter. Through a public declaration, the statistical entity explained that on March 10 of this year it received the final report issued by the Comptroller's Office regarding the audit of the processes associated with the 2024 Population and Housing Census, a process that began on December 13, 2024.
"As the technical body responsible for producing the country's official statistics, the Institute analyzed in detail the observations contained in that report and, in addition to adopting corrective measures, in accordance with current regulations and the institutional procedures established for this type of process, presented to the control entity, on March 18, 2026, a request for legal reconsideration regarding certain observations related to fine collection procedures, enumerators without work authorization, and leases," it added.
Thus, the INE added that it immediately initiated an administrative summary on March 13 regarding the 16 enumerators with criminal records (0.04% of the total hired), in addition to having made the respective complaints to the Public Prosecutor's Office, which are currently under investigation.
"In the same summary process, the possible administrative responsibility for the hiring of 14 foreign enumerators who were not authorized to work in the country (0.03% of all hires) is also being investigated," the organization explained.
"The institution is carrying out permanent control over the measures adopted, in addition to reporting to the Comptroller General of the Republic, reaffirming its commitment to the permanent and continuous strengthening of its processes, transparency in its management, and responsible use of public resources," the service concluded.
Minutes later, it was the turn of the Ministry of Economy, the ministry on which the INE depends: "These are serious events, which occurred during the previous administration and must be thoroughly investigated," was the brief communication.
