Municipalities of the Country have become the Government´s petty cash box

Mayor of Guayaquil Jaime Nebot reiterates that this is the third month municipal revenues have been wrongful retained by the central government. Therefore, the Government is a mere collector and is not entlited to appropriate the funds of the Autonomous Descentralizef Governments (GAD for its Spanish acronym), as it has done.

Three months (December, January and February) of allocations of Guayaquil totaling $ 71 million have been withheld, while the total debt to the GADs is $ 813 million.

Nebot was also concerned about the fate of GADs resources deposited in accounts of the Central Bank of Ecuador (BCE), since according to statements of the President, the resources of cities, provinces, parish boards, “are the petty cash box of the Government.”

The mayor explained that the resources of the Municipality of Guayaquil are deposited in the BCE. The official said: “(The BCE) has always honored so far, all our transfers, but attention!, that does not mean that even if and audit is conducted, a picture is taken, the money is counted, no one can guarantee us that the full money -of the Guayaquil Municipality- is there.

He reiterated that transfers of the Municipality of Guayaquil have been honored, “because we transfer gradually, but if we transferred all our balances, -embracing our right- I personally doubt that the money is there.”