At least 121 conclusions and 13 recommendations, which include asking the President of the Republic, Guillermo Lasso, that his Government does not definitively receive the work of the Coca Codo Sinclair hydroelectric plant (because of its multiple structural problems) and that review the appointment of the current Minister of Energy, Xavier Vera Grunauer, for allegedly having a conflict of interest, contains the final report of the investigation carried out by the Supervisory Commission of the National Assembly, on the contract and construction of the largest Coca Codo Sinclair Hydroelectric Power Plant, and the relationship between companies such as Recorsa and the Ina Papers Case.
the whole case, baptized as Coca-INA, has been investigated for about a year by its president, Assemblyman Fernando Villavicencio, and this Thursday gave way to the reading of the same in the Commission, for a subsequent vote. However, the process had to be suspended one minute before 10:00 because a plenary session of the Assembly had been called. The issue is discussed in the Commission and then raised to the Plenary, at a time when the Prosecutor’s Office has just raided the offices of Sinohydro, within the investigation that this entity is carrying out, also in the Ina Papers case.
According to the report, the construction of Coca Codo Sinclair “reached the colossal figure of $3,311.5 million, including the $599 million for the 500 kV transmission lines.” However, its estimated useful life of 50 years could be affected, since the technical reports obtained show that there are “serious structural problems, which are insurmountable.” The report speaks of 2015 and 2022, 17,499 cracks were detected in its eight distributors or “snails”.
The appearance of cracks, says the report, is the responsibility of the company Sinohydro and the supervisory body (whose shareholders are relatives of Minister Vera) and indicates that they must implement all pertinent actions, and at their cost, to repair them.
Another observation is that the contracting process for the construction of the plant was directly conditioned to its financing, which meant a limitation for the bidding companies; what’s more, Eximbank, lender of Coca Codo Sinclair’s loan, requested that the plant’s builder come from China.
On June 3, 2010, the loan contract was signed, which had the signatures of the Minister of Finance, Patricio Rivera Yánez, Jorge Glas Espinel, Coordinating Minister of Strategic Sectors, as witness of honor, and Zhu Xinquiang, Vice President of Eximbank.
Meanwhile he On November 18, 2016, former Vice President Jorge Glas and the main authorities of the energy sector inaugurated Coca Codo Sinclair, despite the fact that the plant had been built with a material that had obvious and defined manufacturing defects.
Payments from Sinohydro to Recorsa:
The report manages to put in black and white what the participation of Conto Patiño Martínez, commercial representative of Sinohydro in Ecuador, to achieve the award of the contract to Sinohydro. The management to achieve said contract would have been carried out by Conto Patiño himself, his daughter María Auxiliadora Patiño Herdoíza and his son-in-law Xavier Macías Carmigniani, who are close to former president Lenín Moreno, indicates the report. From the testimonies obtained, it is known that while negotiating the signing of the contract, Ítalo Centanaro, as manager of Cocasinclair, received visits from the aforementioned businessmen. According to Italo Centanaro, Conto Patiño received 1% of the amount of the work contract, that is, he would have received $19,797,000 for his management.
In this context, Sinohydro Corporation paid $18,357,957.80 to the Panamanian company Recorsa SA -owned by Conto Patiño Martínez, his wife Beatriz Herdoíza de Patiño and their children- for alleged consultancies for the Coca Codo Sinclair hydroelectric project between 2010 and 2011.
According to him Internal Revenue Service (SRI), the $18.3 million were not duly justified. But at the same time, Sinohydro Corporation “charged” the Coca Codo Sinclair project with the payments made to Recorsa requesting reimbursements for $12.9 million considered by the Internal Revenue Service as items that “do not demonstrate the economic fact.” “In a few words, the Ecuadorian State paid the “commissions” of Conto Patiño Martínez,” says the report.
The SRI initiated eight legal proceedings against Sinohydro. Six of them are contested by Sinohydro and the remaining two are in the execution stage.
About the “Ina Investment” case:
The report also has a segment on the creation of the company INA Investment constituted by the brother of former President Moreno, Edwin Moreno Garcés , in March 2012, in Belize. Edwin Moreno said that Macías, a “friend of the family”, asked him for a loan and to “ensure the payment of the loan”, he created Ina Investment.
The married couple Xavier Macías Carmigniani and María Auxiliadora Patiño, who have a close friendship with former President Lenín Moreno and his wife, Rocío González, managed the company Ina Investment Corporation, a company that in 2015 bought furniture from Moinat SA Antiquities, a classic furniture store located in Geneva, Switzerland, and that they were sent to the residence of Lenín Moreno while serving as United Nations High Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities.
In a statement, the National Communication Secretariat confirmed that the furniture purchased at the Moinat store “was purchased by the Macías Patiños for the use of this family,” but said that the furniture was delivered and stored in Lenín Moreno’s apartment and, later, delivered to their owners, the Macías-Patiño.
In 2016, Ina Investment Corporation bought an apartment in Alicante, Spain, for a value of 133,400 euros to Emilio Torres Copado. The invoices were issued in the name of Edwin Moreno and María Auxiliadora Patiño. Ina made two transfers to Torres Copado for that amount.
On the other hand, the signature Associated Corporate Services Inc., domiciled in Panama, which had a relationship with Ina Investment Corp., was managing companies such as Inversiones Larena Ltd. SA On April 25, 2022 Inversiones Larena Ltd. SA, represented by Juan Carlos Carmigniani Valencia, first cousin of Xavier Macías Carmigniani, He sold a luxurious mansion of 1,050 square meters, located in Salinas, to the Rebrot company, owned by Xavier Jordán Mendoza, investigated for the corruption plot in public hospitals.
The State Attorney General’s Office has been investigating the “Ina Papers” case since March 28, 2019, for the crimes of bribery and money laundering.
Regarding the line of environmental investigation, the report establishes that regarding the disappearance of the San Rafael waterfall, there are elements of analysis of this report that may lead to inferring a connection between the construction of the catchment works. There is a probability that the problem, called regressive erosion, could even affect the catchment works.
Among other recommendations The Internal Revenue Service is also instructed to speed up the collection actions against Recorsa de Panamá, its counterpart in Ecuador, Sinohydro Corporation and Mr. Conto Patiño Martínez.
- It is also recommended to monitor all the payments made by Sinohydro to the Panamanian company Recorsa SA, since they would have lasted until at least 2017.
- It is recommended that the State Attorney General’s Office initiate actions against public officials and contractors who participated in the Coca Coda Sinclair project, for crimes against the public administration, which can be identified from the investigation contained in the report.
- It is recommended that the Minister of Energy and Mines present and promote all civil, administrative and criminal actions, if applicable, against the Supervisory Association. But at the same time, as had been said, review the appointment of the minister due to his family relationship with shareholders of the Fiscalizadora.
- The Executive is asked that the next contracts for emblematic projects in strategic sectors be carried out under the regulations of the national public procurement system established in the country and the Sercop Resolutions.
- The Comptroller General of the State is also requested to carry out a special examination focused on the environmental issue of the construction of the hydroelectric project.
- It is recommended that the report be forwarded to the People’s Republic of China and the Chinese Ambassador in Ecuador, so that they are aware of the alleged irregularities committed. (YO)
Source: Eluniverso
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