The Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF) has approved the payment of $2.4 million to Petroecuador to hire an internationally recognized audit firm to audit Petroecuador’s financial reports for 2019, 2020 and 2021.

Minister Pablo Arosemena Marriott specified the delivery of resources to Petroecuador for the execution in question, which he described as a “historic fact”. He also emphasized the importance of transparency of the financial situation of the largest public company in the country, which will enable the improvement of economic and administrative management and the generation of better indicators of efficiency and profitability.

The revision will be financed from the Support Program for the Reform of Public Enterprises that Ecuador concluded with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). The supply of resources was made through subsidiary agreements between the Ministry of Economy and Finance, the Ministry of Energy and Mining and Petroecuador.

At the same time, Petroecuador reported that through process no. LCC-BID-EPP-2023-001 the company started an audit to decide on the reasonableness of the financial statements of the public company and the former Petroamazonas EP for the financial years 2019 ., 2020 and 2021.

At this moment, the state-owned oil company is implementing the dynamics of activities within the tender and has started the process of inviting recognized international audit firms, which, after agreeing to be part of this process, must submit a technical and price proposal by the following October 11. 2023 for their analysis. The documentation is available on the EP Petroecuador institutional website.

According to Petroecuador, this audit will strengthen the transparency of EP Petroecuador’s financial management, in order to achieve more efficient and profitable management in the administrative and operational areas of the public oil company, in accordance with the policy of the national government led by the President of the Republic, Guillermo Lasso,” the company’s statement reads.

The need for the state-owned company to have a balance sheet audit has been pending for several years and is part of an agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Recently, the lack of audited balance sheets and technical assessment of assets was one of the arguments for the request not to continue the underwriting process. However, the process continued.