Cuba Detains Eight from Massive Fraud

with pre-university exams

HAVANA TIMES — Eight people were arrested in Cuba in connection with a massive fraud that recently forced a repeat of a pre-university examination in Havana, reported dpa news.

Five of those arrested are senior high school teachers and among the other three is also a worker from a state printer.

All are accused of stealing and selling through an underground network the answers to math tests in early May in Havana. The discovery of the theft forced the cancellation and reprogramming of the exam in the capital.

“The test answers were unscrupulously marketed by the five teachers involved, some of whom sold them and others were devoted to reviewing the subject contents of the tests privately and charging for this service,” said the official “Granma” daily.

It’s not the first time on the island such fraud is recorded. In June 2013 the authorities also annulled the results of a pre-university examination in Havana due to a similar theft.

Fraud of this type is attributed in part to the low salaries of the state sector in the island, where the average wage is around US $20 a month. Many public goods or services are often marketed illegally on the black market.