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45% of the invoices in the previous Government were false
Posted On 12 Nov 2018
Ecuadornews:
According to the Anticorruption Commission, there was a tax evasion to the SRI of $ 3,700 million in the last five years of the last administration. 45% of the payments for contracts of the previous Government would have been made through false invoices, says Jorge Rodríguez, coordinator of the National Anticorruption Commission.
Thisentity analyzed the last five years of the previous administration, where,according to Rodriguez, there was a tax evasion of $ 3,700 million. “Thatrepresents a quite significant amount,” says the coordinator of thatentity.
Currently,the Anticorruption Commission prepares a report and a formal complaint thatwill be delivered in the next few days to the Internal Revenue Service (SRI forits acronym in Spanish). They expect this entity to formulate the pertinentcriminal actions for the crime of tax evasion.
At the discretion of Rodriguez, not only should the ghost companies that issued false invoices be analyzed, but also the entities of the central and sectional government “that have taken money out of that form”.
Reformsof the UAFE
The Unit of Financial and Economic Analysis (UAFE) would analyze reforms to the Organic Law of Prevention, Detection and Eradication of Money Laundering and of the Financing of Crimes. The changes would include new sectors such as Politically Exposed Persons (PEP), among them would be the legal representatives of companies or suppliers of the State and candidates for public dignity.
In addition to citizens who have a high risk profile and the presidents of sports associations. However, this inclusion is still under analysis and, according to the UAFE, the changes would contain substantial modifications in the list of PEPs that now belong to a certain range. The intention would be to expand the coverage to make an analysis of the functions they develop and more profiles that may have an impact on the management of public funds.
The UAFE defines PEPs as those individuals, nationals or foreigners who perform or have performed prominent public functions in the country or abroad up to one year after having completed the position that originated such quality. Now, the entity counts 40,699 PEPs, among them are the representatives of the agencies and dependencies of the Executive, Legislative functions, among others.
Extensionof powers
Xavier Zavala Egas, who was part of the Transparency and Anti-Corruption Front, believes that expanding the powers of the UAFE would be a contribution to fighting corruption. He recalled that the washing is nothing more than legalizing “ill-gotten money, and there are a million ways to do it. There are entities, organizations and companies that lend themselves to this “.
He described state suppliers as a sector “very important, because there circulates money that goes to the pockets or the saddlebags of public officials.” However, he believes that there are private entities that facilitate the issue of washing, for example, construction areas and casinos.
As for the sports associations, Zavala said that “legally they are foundations and associations that do not have audits well taken inland”. In 2017, for example, former President of the Ecuadorian Football Federation (FEF), Luis Chiriboga, and other officials of that organization, were sentenced to 10 years for the crime of money laundering.
On the attempt of the UAFE to include candidates for public dignity, Rodríguez points out that it should be a “mandatory” requirement, since it considers that some candidates have incorrect procedures with the use and destination of public campaign funds.
Fightagainst corruption
The fight against corruption, mechanisms, actions and experiences in the public and private sector was held. Silvana Vallejo, director of the National Service of Public Procurement (Sercop), said in that meeting that when she entered in September 2017 she found an institution without data and “that some processes that broke the law were classified as acquired rights as an obligation of the institution public.”
She also explained that they had a technological system that was not in accordance with the regulations and where the processes were not written. Therefore, processes, protocols and methodologies were created to “generate transparency as a transversal principle”.
Currently,the Sercop works with the Comptroller to approve criteria and with the Officeof the Prosecutor, “for the detection of white collar crimes in publicadministration.” In March and April, the Sercop expects to obtain the ISO37001 of Anti-bribery Management Systems. (I)
