10 of the $ 13 million diverted in Riobamba City Hall are still missing

Mayor Juan Salazar Lopez

The City Hall of Riobamba is already making changes, after a meeting of the Council it was resolved to remove from office the head Financial Director, Fanny Lazo, and begin a process of removal of the mayor of Riobamba, Juan Salazar Lopez, for the alleged diverting of $ 13.3 million of the municipality account in the Central Bank of Ecuador (BCE).

The Mayor named Julio Navarro as the new Financial Director and also appointed Geovanny Ibarra as the new municipal treasurer, although that in the session the current officer, Mario Campos, was not removed from office, despite the administrative proceedings initiated against him.

This provided a long process to implement the removal of the mayor, as adopted by the Council with nine votes in favour, one against and one in white. So far, Salazar is in his office.

According to the mayor, they are close to recover around $ 10 million of the $ 13.3 million that were diverted to accounts of individuals and companies in eleven banks of the country. For now, there are five detainees. Meanwhile the BCE maintains that the crime was caused by the mismanagement of the keys to the City Hall account.