Former Deputy Secretary linked to a subcontractor of Chinese firms

Ecuadornews:

Quito –
A steel mill surrounded by extensive plantations is the headquarters of Constructora Daobang S. A. It stands on a three-hectare plot in Durán. The infrastructure shows the success of this young company created in 2014, which after three years of operation reported revenues of $ 8.9 million.

At age 24, Martín Pazmiño Solórzano was appointed legal representative of this company, as soon as it was set up. He is the son of Arturo Pazmiño Lombeida, who at that time was undersecretary of the Hydrographic Demarcation of Guayas, of the National Secretariat of Water (Senagua).

For this position, Arturo Pazmiño was part of the Technical Committee that qualified two Chinese companies -China International Water & Electric (CWE) and Gezhouba Group- to award them three flood control works: Cañar, Naranjal and Bulubulu. The contracts were signed in 2012, for a total cost of $ 407 million.

Those two Chinese contractors are among the clients of Constructora Daobang. This company billed, along with three other related companies, an amount of $ 2.2 million to Gezhouba and $ 879,000 to CWE through 2017, according to the tax statements of Chinese companies.

The other members of the Technical Committee were Carlos Villamarín Córdoba, who presided, and Carlos Bernal Alvarado.

Villamarín is serving a six-year prison sentence for the Odebrecht case. The same Committee that he headed recommended the allocation of the Daule-Vinces Transfer to the Brazilian construction company for $ 186 million.

The then director of Odebrecht, José Conceiçao Santos, testified that he paid $ 6 million in bribes for that Committee to allow him to change the bases of the contest and have the contract.

Besides qualifying the offers, Arturo Pazmiño followed the execution of the works of CWE and Gezhouba.

In 2016, he became Project Management Manager at the Public Water Company (EPA). From there he continued with supervision and appointed the committee to receive the projects.

Another construction that was inspected at the EPA was the Santa Elena Aqueduct Hydraulic Project (Phase), which had been granted to CWE for $ 113 million in 2015.

Once she left the Daobang construction company, Pazmiño Solórzano -the son- also joined the EPA as an analyst in June 2016, one month after her father assumed the position of manager at that institution. He does not have a university degree and is still in his position.

Via telephone, he said he worked for CWE between 2013 and 2016. He said that he met Chinese citizens who were friends of the investors who opened Constructora Daobang and that they asked him to give his name to open the company in Ecuador.

“They asked me (then) to be able to settle here they need someone national … I did not sign another paper or sign contracts,” he said. The corporate records show that he was a representative for two months.

When asked about his father’s activities, he hung up and did not answer again. THE UNIVERSE could not contact Arturo Pazmiño Lombeida.

This report was made with the support of the Initiative for Investigative Journalism in the Americas, promoted by the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) and the Connectas journalism platform.

Related companies

In Ecuador there are three companies linked to Constructora Daobang.

It all started in 2014, when Wendong Zheng, a Chinese businessman based in Samborondón, opened a personal RUC for hardware activities and formed three companies: Daobang Construction Company, Wendong S.A Constructora, and Daobangimport Comercio International SA

Constructora Daboang billed $ 879,000 to CWE and $ 424,000 to Gezhouba. At the same address is Constructora Lanzandes S.A., which was created in April 2017 and invoiced $ 185,000 to Gezhouba. Shareholders include Junlong Lin and Zhouhong Wang, employees of Daobang.

Asked about that company, Junlong Lin said: “I have no knowledge of the Lanzandes company. I dont know. I have no idea “and refused to continue talking about it.

Weeks later he said that he did constitute Lanzandes along with his partner and that he gave a small service to Gezhouba.

Another employee of Constructora Daobang appears as a partner in Constructora Wendong, which invoiced $ 226,000 to Gezhouba. The address reported by this company to the authorities does not exist.

Finally, Daobangimport Comercio International billed $ 1.4 million to Gezhouba. At the registered address, in the north of Guayaquil, there is a medical office building. One guard indicated that there does not work that company.

Wendong Zheng and representatives of Daobang declined to give an interview.

The same happened with the Chinese companies. Gezhouba said his representative is out of the country; CWE, on the other hand, did not respond.

The Odebrecht case

Senagua awarded large contracts to Odebrecht, CWE and Gezhouba, in 2012. The same Technical Committee always acted to qualify the offers.

Conceição Santos declared that the president of that Committee, Carlos Villamarín, contacted him at the beginning of 2012 on behalf of the then Secretary of Water, Walter Solís Valarezo, and of the other members of the Committee: Bernal y Pazmiño.

“(Villamarín) indicated that he could help us with the delivery of privileged information from the bidding rules that were being prepared. He asked for that amount of $ 6 million for him and the people I just mentioned (Solís, Bernal and Pazmiño), “we hear from Conceiçao in the video of the statement, which was obtained by IDL-Reporteros, from Peru.

Thanks to the bribery, added the former director, Odebrecht made seven amendments to the bases. For example, the tender was open to any international company. With the changes, he went to Brazilian construction companies that had financing from the Development Bank of Brazil (Bndes).

Also, at the request of Odebrecht, the bidders were domiciled in Ecuador, had 15 years of work in similar works and that their Unique Registry of Suppliers (RUP) did not register impediments, among other requirements.

At the same time, added Conceiçao, Odebrecht had agreed with other Brazilian firms to win the contest without real competition in exchange for economic compensation.

Conceiçao handed over to the judicial authorities the transfers of bribes, which according to him were sent to the accounts requested by public officials.

According to those documents, $ 2.9 million was sent to two accounts of Sentinel Madate & Escrow Ltd., a firm domiciled in the British Virgin Islands. This company also participated in the bribe payments of the Petroecuador case.

$ 1 million was also transferred to Belvedear Worldwide Company S.A., a Panamanian company. Conceiçao added that he delivered an additional $ 2.1 million in cash, in a suite at the Hilton Colón Hotel in Guayaquil.

Walter Solís’ lawyer, Gutemberg Vera, indicated through a letter that Conceiçao’s statement is false.

This newspaper contacted Carlos Bernal by email, but received no response.

For his part, Carlos Villamarín denied any settlement in Dauvin’s tender. He did it in July of 2017, in a statement before the then prosecutor 2 of the Transparency and Anti-Corruption Unit, Diana Salazar Méndez. She has this case again in her hands, but as the State’s attorney general.

Constructora Daobang SA invoiced $ 1.15 million (excluding VAT) to the Chinese state company CRCC 14th Bureau Group, between December 2015 and October 2017. It obtained the contracts to build a hospital in Yantzaza (Zamora Chinchipe) and three educational units of the Millennium. While the company also billed $ 905,000 (excluding VAT) to China Railway No. 9. The invoices were issued between November and December 2016.

Source: https://www.expreso.ec/actualidad/sercoel-sera-escaneada-contraloria-fiscalia-XH2898707