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Executive raises new anti-corruption measures in Ecuador
Posted On 29 Aug 2018
Ecuadornews:
By the end of 2016, the US Department of Justice revealed that Odebrecht paid $ 33.5 million, between 2007 and 2016, in bribes in Ecuador to obtain contracts. In only two Odebrecht processes in Ecuador, as of November 2017, it was estimated that $ 60 million in bribes were illegally moved.
In the case of Petroecuador, Prosecutor’s Office in 2017 indicated that Álex Bravo received transfers of $ 13 million in its offshore Girbra; and Carlos Pareja Yannuzzelli explained that he received $ 1 million in his Capaya offshore. All as part of a network of acts of corruption.
At the moment there is no exact figure on the money that was moved in the last decade by acts of corruption or in which countries they would be. Despite this, efforts to recover them continue.
One of the last was announced last week by Eduardo Jurado, secretary of the Presidency. He spoke of sending two reforms to fight against corruption and that specialized firms were hired to recover in the US and Panama assets and money.
Jurado did not give details of the companies that work on the subject, but clarified that there are already accurate data. “The issue is not simple, because it is not only about identifying where the money is, but also the mechanism to be able to repatriate it,” the official said.
Lenin Moreno points to two reforms based on delation to recover those monies. The proposals are in addition to the draft Law of Extinction of Domain that delivered, last July, in the Assembly, and that seeks to reform the Organic Code of Comprehensive Criminal (COIP).
On this occasion, the Executive proposes that whoever provides data on where to find money from corruption has a participation of 20%; and protect for a single time whistleblowers who have incurred an act of bribery and who can prove that a public official profited from an unlawful action.
On this last proposal the constitutionalist Rafael Oyarte has reservations, because he is not clear if this is a pardon or is the application of effective rules of cooperation in force to reduce penalties. Oyarte describes as excessive the fact that someone has been involved in acts of corruption and has not been convicted.
Jorge Rodríguez, part of the Anticorruption Commission, sees the timely delivery of the two alternatives. This Commission estimated at the end of 2017 that the cost of corruption that the country experienced in the last decade was more than $ 35 billion.
The commissioner affirms that one should work on a profound reform in at least seven laws (COIP, public procurement, among others).
Eduardo Franco, lawyer of former Vice President Jorge Glas, sentenced to six years in prison for illicit association with Odebrecht, believes that any legal measure that does not contravene the Constitution, human dignity and the principle of innocence is good because corruption causes harm to the country.
In spite of this, he assures that there must be an in-depth study of the subject, because for him these alternatives can be mechanisms of political repression if there is no objectivity and responsibility in the application. (I)
