The president of Ecuador, Guillermo Lasso, will not appear in the Commission of Constitutional Guarantees, of the National Assembly, for the case “Pandora Papers”, scheduled for 3:00 p.m. this Wednesday, October 20, 2021.
This was notified by the president this morning, through a letter sent to the president of this legislative table, Fernando Cabascango. In the letter, the head of state defended that “he has not received any income from abroad” and discarded any insinuation about tax evasion against him.
Regarding the 14 offshore companies that he maintained in the past and is part of the Pandora Papers leak, the head of state explained that he got rid of eight of them: Bernini Foundation, Bretten Holdings, Da Vinci Foundation, Real Estate Foundation, Nora Group Investment Corp., Pietro Overseas SA, Positano Trade LLC and Tintoretto International Foundation.
However, regarding the rest of the companies in tax havens such as the Panamanian bank Banisi and the US trusts Bretten Trust and Liberty Trust, according to Lasso “it has no relationship with them.”
«The response that I respectfully address to you on this occasion, Mr. President of the Commission, I send in order to contribute to the investigation that is being carried out, but I expressly state that neither the National Assembly nor the Commission are the competent bodies to investigate the causes related to breaches of the aforementioned law, “the letter dictates.
After this excuse, Lasso extended an invitation to the members of this legislative commission to receive them at the Presidential Palace, once all the appearances provided for in the work schedule have been evacuated.
“I have the full right to know in advance the assertions that have been made in said forum,” he added.
What does the Law of the Legislative Function indicate?
Despite the fact that President Lasso presented his arguments for not attending to appear before the Constitutional Guarantees Commission, article 77 of the Organic Law of the Legislative Function indicates that the Plenary of the National Assembly or the Legislative Administration Council may request a of the specialized commissions, or the Political Control and Supervision Commission, the investigation into the actions of any public official or acts of citizen interest that have generated social upheaval or political crisis.
«If an assembly member requires information from any public official, the response given to it, as well as the accompanying documentation, will be delivered to the General Secretariat for it to be recorded and maintained as a magnetic backup, so that the civil servant or public official can refer to her in case any other assembly member requests it, ”the law establishes.
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