El Siglo denounced what it termed the "cancerous practice" of Social Security inspectors demanding payoffs in various ways from businesses and other organizations. Two inspectors, charged with the long-standing practice that usually involves workmen’s accident compensation, have been dismissed. According to the article, a Santiago businessman, Miguel Angel Grullón, told his relative, Sergio Grullón, who serves as Secretary of the Presidency, about two inspectors whose extortion was widely known in that city. At the same time, two IDSS employees in La Romana revealed that they were being pressured to turn over between $150,000 and RD$200,000 each week to the head of the department. An investigation of 23 other, as yet unnamed inspectors, is underway.
