Scandal in Ecuador: They denounce the alleged sale of public office

A corruption scandal is in the spotlight in Ecuador: it is the alleged purchase of the position of Deputy Minister of Agriculture in the government of President Guillermo Lasso. The charge was intended to be negotiated at more than USD 2 million.

The fact was revealed by the digital media La Posta, which showed a video showing the negotiation of the position. Legislator Celestino Chumpi, also accused by Lasso of asking the Executive for “economic benefits” in exchange for his vote in favor of a law, would be involved, since the illegal transaction would have been made in complicity with the assembly member's office, as reported by La Posta.

In the published video, a man identified as Ernesto Ripalda indicates that he is an adviser to Legislator Chumpi: “This is where Celestino Chumpi, my boss, was here in the morning. I work for him. I'm an advisor to him, he's president of the GADs. I have lunch and I have to go to the Assembly, I work with him,” he says on the recording.

Ripalda talks with other men about the price he asks for the position of deputy minister, the conditions, the method of payment and who would be interested. Chumpi's alleged adviser says the price of the charge should not be less than $2.5 million. In the video, Ripalda says that if the position is sold for a lower value, he proposes USD 2.1 million, the new deputy minister will not be able to elect the national directors: “This doesn't seem fair to me because if I were deputy minister and they take away the two national directorates where maybe the driver is there and they leave me the bone alone. I wouldn't even want to propose that,” says Chumpi's alleged adviser. Another man responds: “The applicant knows where he is going. He knows where there is and where there isn't.”

Ripalda and the men in the video agree that the price of the deputy ministry should be USD 2.3 million to which an additional USD 200 thousand of profit should be added to them. In total, the new deputy minister should pay USD 2.5 million. Also in the recording, the three men talk to a person they call an “economist”, who would allegedly coordinate the government's negotiation of the position on the part.

La Posta also issued a call with Assemblyman Chumpi. In that conversation, Chumpi assures that Ripalda is not his advisor. Then Chumpi says he does know him, but they don't work together. The media has shown that there is evidence that Chumpi has known Ripalda for a decade.

For his part, the Minister of Agriculture, Pedro Ávala, posted on his Twitter that he filed a complaint with the Prosecutor's Office to “investigate until the last consequences” and said that he hopes that “the full weight of the law will be carried out against those who have taken the name of this portfolio with the clear political intention of attacking national government and this Ministry”.

The Government of Guillermo Lasso and also the leadership of the political movement Pachakutik (PK), to which legislator Chumpi belongs, have spoken out in favor of the prosecution investigating allegations of these alleged acts of corruption.

For its part, the Prosecutor's Office published, on the afternoon of March 31, 2022, that since September 2021 it has been investigating “alleged acts of corruption by different public institutions and political actors”. The statement by the Prosecutor's Office came after the Government asked the institution to carry out “the appropriate investigations to determine the existence of alleged acts of corruption”, after the report by La Posta. “In this government there will be no truce or permissiveness to corruption, even worse acts that tarnish the work carried out by the Executive,” an official statement from the Presidency reads.

During the early hours of this Friday, the Prosecutor's Office raided Ripalda's office and collected several indications related to the alleged negotiation of the position in the Ministry of Agriculture. Ripalda was also held to tell the authorities his story.

KEEP READING:

Ecuador sent a complaint to the government of Honduras for inviting Rafael Correa who remains a fugitive from the justice of his country