The Superintendency of Banks joins the headless entities

The dismissal of Ruth Arregui is the first on the list of political trials scheduled for 2022. The Assembly has audits and censures against officials of the current Government.

Until the afternoon of February 23, 2022, the Communication Department of the Superintendence of Banks had no guidelines. He did not know who would be Ruth Arregui’s replacement. The National Assembly removed her from her position as Company Superintendent and has three other lawsuits on the list and two to present.

The political trial is coming to the 7 members of the Council for Citizen Participation and Social Control, and then to the members of the Council of the Judiciary.

During Session 765 in which Arregui was censored, The change of the agenda was requested twice: once to propose the political trial of the current Minister of Production, Julio Prado and, the second, to propose the trial of the Minister of Government, Alexandra Vela, for the increase in crime in Duran.

The control organisms would be running out of main dignities.

destabilization complaints

The President of the Assembly, Guadalupe Llori, hours before the political trial of the Superintendent of Banks, denounced that they want to “destabilize the legislature.” He assures that they want to dismiss her as well and that “he will not allow anyone to try to manipulate with personal ambitions” and that he will fight against “the desire to destroy the country and create chaos.” I will face it with all my strength, wherever it comes from.”

To remove the Superintendent of Banks, 70 votes were needed in favor of the trial, there were 85. Clearly, new majorities are being assembled in the Legislature.

Julio Cisneros, a political analyst and professor at the Faculty of Liberal Arts at the Universidad San Francisco de Quito, believes that a chain plan is becoming visible, the purpose of which would be to remove one by one the heads of key institutions, to put rise to others more similar to these new majorities.

POLITICS. The former superintendent believes that her dismissal was after she made the Isspol case public

The reasons for dismissal

Ruth Arregui was elected superintendent on April 23, 2019, by the Council for Citizen Participation and Transitory Social Control. She was chosen from a list sent by the then president, Lenín Moreno. She had already held other public positions. Between 2011 and 2013 she was General Manager of the Central Bank of Ecuador. She has also been a financial consultant and university professor.

The former official was not spoken of until, in October 2021, Darwin Pereira, an assembly member for Pachakutik, submitted a request for impeachment to the Assembly, the reason: “for breach of duties.” The Administrative Council of the Legislature (CAL) qualified it. The Supervisory Commission approved the process.

Arregui presented the defense evidence. On February 15, 2022, the Oversight Commission approved the report with the recommendation to file the political trial for not finding direct responsibility of Arregui for what he was accused of.

The main causes for the trial were the lack of control of private banking in improper collections, lack of control in illegal money collection organizations, such as Big Money, and not having sanctioned electronic fraud by private bank clients.

impeachment day

On the morning of February 23, the trial was installed. There was participation of the direct questioners who were the assemblyman for Pachakutik Darwin Pereira and the assemblyman Alexandra Arce for Unión de la Esperanza (Unes). Among them the slogan was repeated: to call Ruth Arregui “lawyer of the bank” and appeal to the question “should we be with the banks or with the people?” Assemblywoman Paola Cabezas gave the same speech, seconded by Quishpe.

The former superintendent had space for the reply. She said it’s about a chase; He claimed to be the one who uncovered the Isspol case. He said that when he arrived at the institution, in 2019, he found supervisory processes to control Isspol’s investments. When he wanted to make control adjustments, what he received was a protection action by the Social Security of the Police, for not complying with what the Superintendence of Banks had asked him.

He also said that he asked Isspol to stop making those investments. that caused a loss of $900 million to the State; and, he asked the plenary “where was Isspol’s money?” He assured that “they did not have the investment titles and that” the money has not been returned “

For his part, the questioning assemblyman, Darwin Pereira, maintained that he did not sanction the illegal money collectors. He accused her of allow the person responsible for Big Money to escape, without any penalty. He also held her responsible for letting the computer frauds of private financial institutions slip through.

Arregui replied that, between 2019 and 2021, there were pecuniary sanctions, that is, serious sanctions for 1 million 140 thousand dollars to private banks, for different issues. She had an hour to respond, but the former superintendent used less than 20 minutes. What he had to say and the evidence in his defense had already been presented to the Oversight Commission, which recommended filing the trial.

ACCUSATIONS. Ruth Arregui already appeared on November 11, 2021 before the Assembly

Voting started

Assemblyman Ricardo Vanegas for Pachakutik said that the explanations were clear and that he would vote against the dismissal. But in the vote he abstained. The assembly members who recommended the filing of the trial also abstained. With the votes of Unes, Pachakutik (with the exception of Llori) and the Democratic Left, the superintendent was left out of her position.

When the results were given, there was applause in the room. It became clear that there is a new majority that will be able to insist on new political trials.

The trials of the seven members of the Council for Citizen Participation and Social Control are pending, which, in turn, should choose a new Comptroller, new members for the National Electoral Council, and now, added to its list, choose a new Superintendent to replace Arregui, whose term would have ended naturally, in 2024.