With 10 votes, the Biodiversity Commission of the Assembly decided to start the impeachment process against the Minister of Finance, Richard Martínez, for apparent non-compliance with his duties.
This resolution was promoted by the coordinator of the National Integration Block (BIN), Eddy Peñafiel.
Peñafiel pointed out that «it is not the first time that the Minister has not come and obviously we must exercise our constitutional and legal role, which is that of political control over officials who fail to comply with these regulations.»
However, Minister Martínez informed the Commission, justifying that the Ministry of Finance does not have the powers to assign, order or transfer the resources financed by the Fund for Sustainable Amazon Development and the Common Fund of the Special Amazon Territorial Circumscription, as required the assemblymen.
Martínez explained that national and foreign companies, public, private, mixed-economy, or of another type, dedicated to oil exploitation in the Ecuadorian Amazon, deposit monthly, in the special account of the Central Bank of Ecuador, called, Fund for the Sustainable Amazon Development, the values according to article 60 of the Amazon Territorial Law.
The Minister delegated Gonzalo Lascano, legal coordinator of that state agency, but the legislators did not accept his assistance.
For the impeachment request to be formalized, the assembly members must gather 35 signatures of support from the legislators. In the National Assembly there are five requests for impeachment from different parties against Martínez, which have not yet been qualified by the Legislature’s Administrative Council (CAL).
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