According to the work schedule of the table, the next November 6 must deliver the report on the investigation carried out
The Commission on Constitutional Human Rights Guarantees has not been able to obtain information to clarify the investigation process on the Pandora Papers, and the alleged involvement of the President of the Republic, Guillermo Lasso Mendoza.
This was stated by the president of the table, José Cabascango, at 7:05 p.m. when closing three sessions of appearances held on October 27, where he said that the citizen power exercised by the National Assembly has not been able to obtain information that allows clarifying this process of investigation that the plenary session of the legislature delegated.
This October 27, the commission received Guillermo Solines, manager of the Central Bank of Ecuador; Ruth Arregui, Superintendent of Banks; the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mauricio Montalvo; and, to the director of the Financial and Economic Analysis Unit (UAFE), Carla Mera Proaño. Those who did not provide more data regarding what the legislators who are investigating an alleged relationship of the President with companies that own capital or assets in tax havens are looking for. There was a fourth session but it was closed because the director of the Internal Revenue Service, Marisol Andrade, excused herself, noting that she had already responded to the requests made by the legislators.
UNES and Pachakutik present information on Guillermo Lasso’s alleged involvement with ‘offshore’ in Panama
The UNES legislator, Paola Cabezas, during the interrogation of the director of the UAFE, expressed her frustration at not being able to obtain information regarding the detection of any unusual financial movement involving the current president and his relatives, and even asked that if President Guillermo Lasso renounces banking secrecy, the UAFE can deliver information to the commission that investigates it, the answer was that this body only delivers information to the State Attorney General’s Office as determined by the Law.
Even Cabezas warned the director of the UAFE, which is subject to control and announced that it will insist on requirements and that under secrecy due to confidential information, it submits the information regarding the investigation into the Pandora Papers.
Given the repeated responses from the UAFE official that the information is confidential, Cabezas described her responses as absurd.
Carla Mera Proaño, insistently affirmed to the legislators that she cannot reveal information about financial movements of any person or institution, that the agency performs analysis of operations and not of people.
That all the information processed by the UAFE is confidential and secret, that information is only provided at the request of the Prosecutor’s Office, and that if unusual movements are detected, it is sent to the Prosecutor’s Office and its investigation is reserved.
The president of the legislative board, José Cabascango, said that on behalf of all the members of the commission he expresses his concern, that although it is true that there is information of a confidential natureThere is also sufficient legal framework for the National Assembly to request information from public officials, taking into account that the President of the Republic, Guillermo Lasso, is public officials.
But “We have seen in all these appearances and requests for information it would seem that we have not managed to overcome that colonial structure, having the Ecuadorian state and a Constitution, with a public power with functions that including assembly members, we are obliged to provide information and citizen power; and at this moment that citizen power has not been able to obtain information that allows clarifying this investigative process that the plenary session of the National Assembly has delegated to us ”.
Guillermo Solines, manager of the Central Bank, stated that he cannot provide information on the financial movements of natural and legal persons abroad, nor is the analysis the responsibility of the institution. The way to deliver the information is through article 242 of the Monetary and Financial Code, about the delivery of information, where it is mentioned that any request for information must be channeled through the control bodies.
He affirmed that generally the transfers abroad that the Central Bank makes from its depositors at the request of a financial institution and does so in favor of a foreign correspondent, and these correspondents are almost never in tax havens, he added.
The Central Bank, he added, rarely makes direct transfers to tax havens, since the correspondents of financial institutions are located in financial centers, usually in New York.
The Foreign Minister, Mauricio Montalvo, commented that he does not have specific information because the subject of the convocation is broad, but he referred to the tax information exchange agreement with the United States and pointed out that this international instrument is in process and that it requires an opinion from the Constitutional Court and the subsequent approval of the National Assembly.
Ruth Arregui, Superintendent of Banks, spoke of confidential, secret and top secret information all the requirements made by the assembly members regarding financial movements, and stated that for the delivery of the information, not only the proper motivation is enough, which empowers the superintendency to deliver the information, but there is also a legal framework that must be respected, and only when the owner allows it. He affirmed that he is unaware of the issue of Pandora Papers, and it is not the authority of that body to investigate.(I)
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