Ecuador improved its position in the 2022 Corruption Perception Index (CPI) generated by Transparency International. The organization described the progress of the country as “significant”, which closed in place 101 of 180 nations measured.
However, this advance is cataloged by comparing the position reached in 2021 (105) or in 2016 (120), but if we take 2020 as a reference (92nd place) it can be considered as a setback.
Corruption Barometer 2022: Three out of four Ecuadorians believe that the Government is not doing a good job in the fight against corruption
America has an average of 43 points out of 100 in this index. The closer the score is to 100, the less corrupt the nation. at the head of the ranking Uruguay and Canada are located regionally, each with a score of 74, followed by the United States with 69.
Ecuador achieved 36 points. It is located below Colombia (39), Argentina (38), Brazil (38) and above El Salvador (33), Bolivia (31), Mexico (31), Paraguay (28), Guatemala (24) and Honduras. (23), Nicaragua (19), Haiti (17) and Venezuela (14). Venezuela is the most corrupt nation, according to the index.
In Latin America, says Transparency International, weak and unaccountable public institutions have created fertile ground for the growth of organized crime, fostering violence and insecurity. In many countries, law enforcement authorities and corrupt officials collaborate with criminal gangs or accept bribes in exchange for ignoring their illegal activities.
Although Ecuador’s progress is highlighted, it also questions the declaration of a state of emergency to confront organized crime decreed by President Guillermo Lasso. This figure has also been applied by El Salvador and Honduras.
“In the name of security, these governments reduced civic space, limiting the capacity for supervision and control by other actors and substantially aggravating the risks of corruption and democratic setbacks suffered by the region.”, affirms the entity.
This report comes amid allegations of corruption in the management of strategic public companies that dot the Lasso government and his close family circle. But corruption is a cancer that has appeared in most presidential administrations in Ecuador’s republican history, especially after the 1980s.
Germán Rodas, coordinator of the National Anti-Corruption Commission (CNA), affirms that from the highest spheres of power there has not been an anti-corruption political project, but only a set of opinions, a series of slogans.
Out of 30 prioritized institutions, the Anti-Corruption Secretariat has been able to implement mapping and mitigation of corruption risks in two entities
It indicates that the current government has not had the ability to distance itself from “certain characters” who have acted in favor of corruption in the last fifteen years: “Some of them are recycled in key positions of important ministries that contribute to an irregular management of public resources.”.
To this he adds that in times as complex as the pandemic, it was evident how these characters used the health system amid the passivity of power and the same happens in strategic areas.
He also questions that all governments have proclaimed that they are fighting corruption, they have created bodies that supposedly would serve this purpose, but the facts show the opposite.
“To this must be added the impunity that exists in the country. Criminals who have been punished with several years in prison and the return of money have been released thanks to a judicial system that is made for corruption. These people get out of jail without paying back a penny.“, He says.
In addition, the corruption scenario is aggravated by having an Assembly that is also involved in acts at odds with the law and morality.
The CNA will present a request for reforms to the International Organic Code in order to guarantee comprehensive reparation to the State and prevent impunity: “We want to ensure that people sentenced for corruption do not leave prison if they have not paid reparation to the State.”
Meanwhile, 93% of Ecuadorians believe that corruption is a big and very big problem in the country, according to the Corruption Barometer 2022, a study prepared by Fundación Ciudadania y Desarrollo, together with Transparency International, with the support of the German GIZ Cooperation.
73% maintain that corruption has increased in the country in the last twelve months and only 7% believe that corruption has decreased in the same period of time.
It is difficult for citizens to identify concrete actions and results in the fight against corruption by the regime, the document indicates: three out of four people believe that the current government is doing a bad job in addressing this problem.
Transparency International clarifies that the report score may not contain the recent acts of corruption in an evaluated country and that these would be considered in the following reports: “It is also possible that they have been captured in the Index of progress in the control of corruption in the public sector that counteract the negative cases. On the other hand, the index does not evaluate certain types of corruption, such as money laundering or transnational bribery.
Some types of corruption that the index measures are bribery, embezzlement of public funds, officials using their public office for personal gain without facing the consequences. governments’ ability to prevent corruption in the public sector, excessive bureaucracy in the public sector that can increase opportunities for corruption, nepotism in the appointments of public officials, among others. (YO)
Source: Eluniverso
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